tv

The Most spoiled teenager in the world?!

Audio/Video, Home Theater, Miscellaneous / By /

This was too good of a story not to post, especially for the jealousy that it will generate among … well, everyone!

Mom, Patti Deni, gave her teenage son a huge gift in his new bedroom of their newly built home, and we do mean huge – a 98″ video projection screen TV. But wait, that’s not all – it’s mounted in the ceiling!

There are over 300 pounds of equipment above his bed now. Want one of these TVs? It’s a 98-inch StarGlas60 display from Stewart Filmscreen.

via Eelctronic House

Bang & Olufsen 103-inch Plasma HDTV

Audio/Video, Home Theater, Home Automation / By /

103-inch B&O Plasma HDTV

Bang & Olufsen have launched their new very top-of-the-line plasma HDTV coming in with a screen size of 103-inches, making it one of the biggest on the market today and with Bang & Olufsen you know you’re getting quality… and that you’re going to have to pay through the nose for it.

The BeoVision 4, to give it is proper title, sits comfortably on the floor when not in use and as soon as you want to power on, it will raise itself off the floor to the optimal viewing position and mysteriously grow its 10-channel Integrated BeoLab loudspeaker out of nowhere, bringing it up to screen level, a process which reverses when it’s put into standby or switched off. Seemingly the ultimate couch potato system, the Beo5 remote can be programmed to control equipment from all over the house from the basic use of AV equipment, right up to closing your curtains or covering your pool over.

If you’re after one, you better order quick as there is a 3-4 month waiting list because every one is built to order with customer specifications and installed specially at every location. As for pricing, the floor model comes in at $111,000 the wall-mounted (no motorized stand) version comes in at $93,000 – providing you can still afford a wall to put it on.

More info from the manufacturer
Price: starting at $93,000
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Panasonic’s LivingInHD hosting Q&As about upcoming DTV switch

Audio/Video, Home Theater / By /

Panasonic is trying to help folks who still have questions about the upcoming US transition to DTV (digital/HD TV) in June by hosting a couple of live Q&A sessions tomorrow (Jun 4) at 4PM and 7PM ET.

You can get more info at their Living in HD website, which also has tons more info on High Def products, usage, connectivity and more.

Incidentally, they are also running a sweepstakes this month and are giving away a product a day.

You can also get more info on the switch to HD at the DTV Transition website.

HAVA Titanium HD WiFi

Audio/Video, Home Theater, Gizmo of the Day, Networking & Internet / By /

HAVA Titanium HD

Okay, Okay, I know we seem to love HAVA here, but we thought we’d let you know about the HAVA Titanium we mentioned in a pervious post. The HAVA Titanium HD WiFi (to use its proper name) allows you to stream HD video to your TV via a super-fast 802.11n connection.

The device basically works by streaming HD video through over your WiFi system to the dongles plugged into all your receivers (TVs and what have you). If you so wish, you can back away the box and take it with you on your travels (potential SlingBox killer?) – wherever there’s an internet connection you can watch your TV shows from home via a wide range of media, including mobile phones, and can stream simultaneously to multiple receivers, as with most of these cool HAVA items.

More info and buy now!

Price: $249.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

ABC/Disney partners with Hulu to show ABC shows

Audio/Video, Home Theater, Networking & Internet / By /

After months of negotiations, Disney (ABC) has agreed to take a stake in Hulu, NBC’s online video website and thus also air their shows on hulu.com. Fans of Lost Grey’s Anatomy, Desperate Housewives, and so on can now see full episodes online legally for free with an ad or two thrown in for revenue.

While Greg Sandoval at CNET seems to think this will hurt YouTube, I don’t think that’s about to happen just yet. Sure, this is an important deal as YouTube tries to reform its model to include more industry-approved content, but YouTube is a household name with over 10 times the traffic currently.

Have DVRs succeeded?

1 Comment / Audio/Video, Home Theater / By /

Have DVRs not brought the revolution they promised 10 years ago? So argues the Economist, saying that they have not undermined television, but instead done the opposite. I disagree. While television advertising hasn’t collapsed as many experts thought it would in the face of TiVos and other DVRs, being able to easily pause, rewind & fast forward through ‘live’ TV (not to mention act as a VCR) has revolutionized television-watching.

Now the Economist does make a good point which I do agree with, which is that TV now faces a new potential threat in the form of online video sites such as Hulu and the like. However, if TV does get done in, it’ll be by their own hands, as Hulu and other network run sites have been consciously set up by the networks and studios. But I don’t think that will happen. This is a good move by the industry as they realize there’s a growing online audience that isn’t about to migrate back to the living room sofa any time soon.

Adobe Flash coming to a TV near you

Audio/Video, Home Theater, Networking & Internet / By /

Adobe plans to bring its Flash technology to your TV screens by having TVs and set-top boxes built with support for Flash. Flash is the format used for roughly 80% of video online as well as many online video games.

This will certainly make it easier for studios to create content that is viewable on both TV and the Web.

I think that one of the things that needs an update is many of the interfaces and remote controls for the set-top boxes. Why? Because one of the powerful uses of Flash is building applications that are interactive. Take games for example. If Adobe would really like Flash to be used to its fullest, then those set-top boxes need to improve their current horrible non-intuitive interfaces as well as their power (I’m looking at you Motorola).

Adobe expects Flash-supported hardware to begin selling late this year.

Sci Fi channel changing its name to SyFy

Audio/Video, Home Theater, Miscellaneous / By /

This has been blogged about ad-infinitum, so I’m not going to add to the chorus of cries from geekdom about the horrible new name.

But it did occur to me that this could be the start of something worse – the Sci Fi channel drifting away from its roots, Science Fiction and related material. Yes, I know that it already airs wrestling and gaming, but I can forgive them a few tangents if it helps pay the bills.

What I’m thinking of is best described by an example – MTV. MTV, the original cable channel, has pretty much nothing to do with music any more. So much so, that they had start a new channel, MTV2 just to air the music that they were formed in the first place for.

I’d rather that didn’t happen to the Sci Fi channel. And yes, I’m still going to call it that!

PCTV HD Mini Stick

Audio/Video, Home Theater, Gizmo of the Day / By /

PCTV Mini Stick

The PCTV HD Mini Stick is an amazingly compact innovation to allow you to watch HD TV on your computer. Perhaps most suited to stylish laptops with its sleek styling, it will really complement your multimedia set-up and take your computer to the next level.

Even if you don’t live in an area that has a strong TV signal, you should find that this device picks it up nicely with its integrated signal booster, and then allows you to watch it in full screen or via scalable window, if you’ve got something else to keep your eyes on. But watching TV isn’t all that this little stick is capable of; you can also record your favorite shows with the built-in recorder, and then transfer them easily to your hard drive or DVD.

Finally, the device has a built in video-editing suite that allows you to edit what you’ve recorded, and even has a one-click upload service to get it onto YouTube. What are you waiting for?!

Buy Now!

Price: $109.99(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Congress extends Digital TV switchover to June 12 2009

Audio/Video, Home Theater / By /

Now that both the US House and Senate have voted in favor of similar bills to extend the DTV cutover by 4 months, it’s just a matter of the President signing off on it (and he’s in favor of it).

The argument in favor of extending the deadline goes something along the lines of TV stations and consumers not being ready. Guess what? Come June 12, they’re not all going to be ready either.

Pull off the bandaid already. It’s gonna hurt now, or in 4 months or in 12 months. But if the frequency spectrum being used for analog TV isn’t freed up, then it can’t be used for newer, better wireless technologies. Sometimes leadership involves pulling some of your population dragging and screaming forward with you. Don’t worry, when they get there, most of the reluctants will grudgingly change their mind.

In case you don’t know about the Digital TV Transition, there’s a .gov website covering the subject.

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