Home Theater

November 7th, 2009

TiVo readying 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter?

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 12:18 pm

Categories: Home Theater

Tags: Adapter, IEEE 802.11n, TiVo Inc., Wi-Fi, Wireless And Mobility, Sean Portnoy

It’s been a tough slog for TiVo, whose once-innovative DVR ecosystem has been co-opted by cable companies’ own DVR services. (Though some offer the TiVo interface for an additional charge.) The company and its devices still have their champions, but it’s difficult to achieve mass success when buyers have to pony up a minimum of $149.99 (for a new standard-definitio Series 2 DVR) and a monthly fee, instead of just paying a few bucks a month for an HD DVR box from their cable provider.

One of the many things TiVo offers that cable boxes do not (yet) is Wi-Fi capability, which you can add via a $60 802.11g adapter. Among other things, it allows you to connect two TiVos wirelessly to transfer recordings between them. But 802.11g throughput speeds are no longer the best with the development of 802.11n, so it comes as no surprise that TiVo is now working on a 802.11n adapter that has made its way to the FCC.

Those faster speeds could come in handy with TiVo’s additional services you get with your monthly fee, things like Netflix and Amazon Video On Demand. If you haven’t purchased the 802.11g adapter, and you don’t have an Ethernet port near your TiVo, an 802.11n adapter could be your means to unlock more entertainment from your Series2 Dual Tuner, HD, or Series3 device. There’s no word about how much an 802.11n adapter would cost or when it would be available. But what would be even better is a Series4 TiVo with built-in 802.11n, right?

November 5th, 2009

Viewsonic introduces $100 VMP70 HD media player without network connectivity

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 5:43 pm

Categories: Home Theater

Tags: ViewSonic Corp., Network, 1080p, Network Connectivity, Media Player, VMP70, Ethernet, Networking, Sean Portnoy

Viewsonic is best known for its computer monitors, but it also offers HDTVs, mostly through online retailers. Now it hopes to expand its living room presence with its first media player, the VMP70.

The good news is that it can handle 1080p HD, though that’s not a major accomplishment these days. Perhaps the VMP70 is most notable for its connectivity options—or, rather, its notable connectivity omission. Like most similar devices, the Viewsonic offers an HDMI output, along with component-video, composite-video, and S/PDIF ports. It also comes with a pair of USB ports.

Those USB connection are critical, because the only way you can provide the VMP70 with the media it’s designed to play back is via an external drive. There’s no Ethernet port provided, nor built-in wireless connectivity. That means any files you want to play on your HDTV that are on your home PC need to be offloaded to a thumb drive or external hard drive.

Viewsonic would probably argue that the price of the VMP70—$129.99 normally, but $98.99 during the holidays—means that you will eschew features like network connectivity in exchange for the low price. Though for an extra $30, you could grab the new Patriot Box Office, a 1080p device that also has an Ethernet port and room to install a 2.5-inch hard drive. Would you miss the network port if you can pay $100 for a 1080p player like the VMP70? Let us know in the TalkBack section.

November 4th, 2009

Wal-mart preempts Black Friday with HDTV specials this Saturday

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 8:26 pm

Categories: Home Theater

Tags: Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Retail Company, HDTV, 1080p, Retail, Sean Portnoy

Every year, retailers’ ads for Black Friday—the day after Thanksgiving and the unofficial starting of the holiday shopping season—manage to leak out a few weeks beforehand (this year being no exception). And every year, said retailers freak out when the ads appear online, perhaps fearing that competitors could change their prices in response.

Wal-mart appears to be short-circuiting this annual struggle, offering some pre-Black Friday deals available this Saturday only starting at 8 a.m. While the deal getting the most notoriety is the $199 Xbox 360 Arcade with a $100 gift card, there are a couple of decent HDTV specials as well. First, Wal-mart is selling the Panasonic TC-P46U1 (pictured above), a 1080p plasma, for $788. That’s a couple hundred off what the set is selling for on Amazon ($1,099.95), and just $10 more than what the cheapest 1080p 42-inch Panasonic plasma currently costs at JR.com.

If you’d rather go LCD and spend a little less, there’s the Sharp LC42SB45UT, a 42-inch 1080p set for $498. It costs around $700 from online retailers, but it does not offer 120Hz refresh rates. Wal-mart is also selling a Sony Blu-ray player for $148, though $99 will be the price point that will really get people jumping for Blu-ray units.

It will be interesting to see if Wal-mart will continue offering these deals before Black Friday, and if they impact the deals the retailing giant offers for the big day itself. The other question: Will other retailers like Best Buy follow suit with some pre-Black Friday specials of their own? I’ll keep you posted if they do.

November 1st, 2009

Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Top Five HDTVs

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 9:21 pm

Categories: HDTV, Holiday Gift Guide

Tags: HDTV, LCD, TVs, Tv & Home Theater, Monitors & Displays, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Hardware, Components, Sean Portnoy

Whatever the size of your wallet, every living room should have a respectable television set. Good news: HDTVs are cheaper, bigger and better than ever. Here are my top five picks for this year.

Splurge: Samsung UNB8500 Series

If you don’t need to wait for a full economic recovery to hit before you can afford a new top-of-the-line HDTV, then consider the Samsung UNB8500 sets (either the 46-inch or 55-inch model), which feature LED backlighting and 240Hz refresh rates. Our CNET colleagues found that the series has the best black levels of any TVs outside the fabled (and sadly discontinued) Pioneer Kuro plasmas, and corresponding excellent color reproduction. If you can set it up to minimize off-angle viewing, and you can swallow the high price, this will make quite a present—maybe for yourself most of all.

[read the review] [check prices]

Go to the next page »

November 1st, 2009

Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Blu-ray Players/Home Theater Systems

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 9:21 pm

Categories: Blu-ray, Holiday Gift Guide

Tags: Home Theater, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Blu-ray, Home Entertainment, Consumer Electronics, Tv & Home Theater, Personal Technology, Sean Portnoy

With prices for both players and discs plunging, this may be the holiday season for Blu-ray. Already online movie streaming is making inroads—even on Blu-ray players themselves. Some of these picks are integrating on-demand video services into their feature sets, hoping to keep themselves relevant in the disc-less future.

Splurge: Oppo BDP-83

You don’t drop $500 on an Oppo Blu-ray player like the BDP-83 because you want to watch Netflix’s streaming service through it. You get one because of its superlative video quality and speed, along with its ability to play PAL-encoded discs and even niche products like DVD-Audio and SACD discs. If you don’t care about networking features, but value high-quality image quality most of all, the BDP-83 is worth the price.

[read the review] [check prices]

Go to the next page »

October 31st, 2009

Men watch more high-def than women--and other things about HDTV you probably already know

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 5:41 am

Categories: Home Theater

Tags: Men, Women, HDTV, HD, HD Drama, Gender And Diversity, Cable, TVs, Network Technology, Tv & Home Theater

There was a time not too long ago when a lot of people bought an HDTV, brought it home, and started watched TV, all the while thinking they were watching in HD when they hadn’t bothered to upgrade their cable or satellite package to make high-def programming available. Now viewers have become savvier, according to a new study by the Knowledge Network, which finds that 43 percent of high-definition viewers watch HD programming every day. That’s up from 26 percent two years—a 65-percent increase.

Viewing of various types of shows in high-def has also increased, though not spectacularly. HD dramas are now watched by 43 percent of respondents (up from 32 percent), and sitcom HD viewership has jumped to 47 percent from 38 percent. The biggest move comes with how-to shows, which are now watched in HD by 26 percent of respondents compared to just 12 percent in 2007; this may be due to the increasing number of cable channels broadcast in high-def, as they have increased in number in the past couple of years. Curiously, findings about HD viewership of sports isn’t included in the company’s press release.

The study also confirms what you probably can surmise on your own anecdotally—men are much more interested in HD than women. While 48 percent of men check HD channels first when they switch on the set, only 19 percent of females do. Similarly, more males choose to watch an HD version of a show instead of the SD version than women do (58 percent versus 41 percent). These findings definitely play out in this household—how about yours?

October 27th, 2009

Is HDTV turning Americans into hockey fans?

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 6:08 pm

Categories: Home Theater

Tags: Network, HDTV, NHL, Sport, Games, Cable, Tv & Home Theater, Networking, Personal Technology, Telecommunications

Hockey, the national pastime of our neighbors up north, has always been the number-four sport in the U.S., save for pockets of the country with a puck pedigree (the Northeast, the northern Midwest). While the league expanded south and west during the 1990s, and managed to have Fox broadcast Stanley Cups during the decade, that expansion has stalled and the NHL now has a deal with minor cable network Versus.

An unlikely hero has emerged for the sport in the last couple of years, though—broadcasts of hockey games in high definition. Of course, all sports look better in HD, but hockey in particular benefits from the extra resolution in one critical way: Casual viewers can now follow the puck. The inability to see the puck has been the long-time lament of people who’ve tried to watch a game but given up in frustration at being unable to see the little bugger.

But according to an article in the Toronto Star, NHL ratings are actually on the upswing. This season, Versus has already seen a 16-percent rise in viewership. The network itself credits the HD revolution for the gain in popularity, with Marc Fein, Versus’ executive vice-president of programming, saying that “We see that as HD gets more prevalent and more people get it hooked up … our growth in hockey has been amazing.”

Whether the improving ratings will be enough to allow the league to move back to a bigger network (back on ESPN, for example) is still to be determined, but this is a more positive development than. say, people recoiling from celebrities who you realize you don’t want to see in all of the glory of high definition.

October 25th, 2009

Would you let Wal-mart do your home-theater installation?

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 10:57 am

Categories: Home Theater

Tags: Best Buy Co. Inc., Home Theater, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Electronics, Home Entertainment, Tv & Home Theater, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Sean Portnoy

Above all else, Wal-mart is about offering the lowest prices possible (seemingly at all costs), but when it comes to electronics products like HDTVs, being the cheapest only gets you so far. Best Buy has remained strong during the recession in thanks to its service offerings, most notably its Geek Squad of techies who can be hired to install that $2,000 home theater you just purchased.

Since the Geek Squad has been a huge cash cow for Best Buy, it shouldn’t come as a total surprise that Wal-mart has made a move to cut into that competitor’s market by announcing that it will offer home theater installation services (as well as other tech support) as the holiday season approaches. But while Best Buy started out hiring the Geek Squad before acquiring the company and integrating it into its stores, Wal-mart is not developing its own tech troop, choosing instead to work with N.E.W. Customer Service Companies (which calls itself “the nation’s leading provider of extended service plans, buyer protection programs and product support for retailers”) to supply the installers.

Wal-mart will charge $99 to install that new TV you brought at the mega-retailer and give you a tutorial on how to use it. It will charge up to $339 for other services, which presumably would entail setting up an entire home theater system—and possibly more. The move follows the decision last month for Sam’s Club, the warehouse brand Wal-mart runs, to use a new supplier (probably N.E.W.) for tech support for electronics purchased at its locations.

Given its price-conscious clientele, will Wal-mart be able to match Best Buy’s success with the Geek Squad with its offering? Would you pay Wal-mart to install your new HDTV or home theater? Or have you already used the Geek Squad for that? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in our TalkBack section.

October 22nd, 2009

New Roku XR will add 802.11n Wi-Fi upgrade to cheap media streamer

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 6:20 pm

Categories: Home Theater

Tags: IEEE 802.11n, Roku Inc., Wireless LANs, Wi-Fi, Video On Demand (VoD), Wireless And Mobility, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Sean Portnoy

It may not be the ultimate media streaming solution, but for $99.99 the Roku Digital Video Player already does quite a bit, including offering Netflix and Amazon Video On Demand and Major League Baseball games. Unlike many of its competitors, Roku even offers built-in Wi-Fi to go along with its wired Ethernet port.

Unfortunately, that wireless connection is 802.11b/g, which isn’t ideal for video streaming. Apparently, Roku will be addressing that limitation with its new XR player, which will come with 802.11n Wi-Fi for far greater throughput rates. It also adds a USB port, so you can connect an external hard drive or thumb drive with video files for streaming to your HDTV. One thing that isn’t clear is if the XR will support 1080p HD, which the original Roku doesn’t currently handle.

We also don’t know what the price of the new device will be, though if these are the extent of the upgrades, Roku should probably keep the same pricing. When the XR will become available is not known as well, though with more of these streaming player hitting the marketplace all the time, the sooner the better.

[Via Engadget HD]

October 20th, 2009

Asus' wireless HDMI streamer coming next month?

Posted by Sean Portnoy @ 5:13 am

Categories: Home Theater

Tags: ASUS, HDMI, Wireless, Gefen, Wi-Fi, Wireless And Mobility, Sean Portnoy

An anonymous tipster provided Engadget with a juicy scoop yesterday regarding the latest attempt to produce a commercially viable wireless HDMI streaming device. Asus is apparently nearly ready to introduce the BR-HD3, a $650 box that can transmit the signal (up to 1080p) from one device to your HDTV. While the BR-HD3 has been in the pipeline for a while, it might be officially released as early as next month.

That single source is a notable limitation, since you won’t be able to hook up a Blu-ray player to it if you already have your cable box connected to it. Asus supposedly will release a version with three ports by the middle of next year. There’s also no solid information regarding how far the BR-HD3 can transmit the signal.

Wireless HDMI that’s affordable is a bit of the Holy Grail that has mostly been offered by TV manufacturers for their sets. Sony has the $499 Bravia Wireless Video Link, which doesn’t do 1080p and is designed for its HDTVs, while Panasonic uses the WirelessHD standard for its $5,500 Panasonic Z1 plasma. Gefen offers the Wireless for HDMI Extender, with a range of 100 feet, for $899, a couple of hundred dollars more than Asus will supposedly sell the BR-HD3 for. Belkin generated plenty of buzz with its FlyWire device, but that HDMI streamer was to retail for $1,499 and was killed off earlier this year.