Audio/Video, Home Theater

Netgear EVA2000 Digital Entertainer Live – MultiMedia Streaming Box

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

netgear eva2000Media Center/streaming multimedia boxes are always interesting, as there isn’t a gadget out there yet that does it all. Networking maker Netgear has stuck to their guns over the past few years and continued rolling out what they like to call Digital Entertainer boxes, the latest being the EVA2000 Digital Entertainer Live.

We reviewed one of their earlier products (the EVA700) and found a box with lots of potential, although it fell short at the time. The EVA2000 builds on that experience.

What you can expect with the EVA2000: play multimedia stored on your computers, USB or NAS devices on your TV, play multimedia from the Web/Internet including sources like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix, and even pay-per-view.

You can connect wirelessly but you need to get their wireless adapter (EVAW111); they really need to bundle that into the product. For the under $100 price tag, this could be a decent starter media streamer box.

Buy now!
Price: $84.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

CES 2010: Monsoon’s Volcano Box is Audio-Video Swiss Army Knife – DVR, Placeshifter, Internet TV and More

Audio/Video, Home Theater, CES / By /

HAVA maker, Monsoon Multimedia, is still in the gadget game and in particular, the multimedia multi-function types located right at the heart of your AV rig. At CES, they announced and demoed their latest device, the Volcano, which does a slew of things. Sling should be prying this open soon with a microscope close behind.

monsoon multimedia volcano box

The sleek-looking Volcano is an HD device that placeshifts (a la the Slingbox) your live TV or other prerecorded video over the Internet, a DVR, Internet TV (YouTube and CinemaNow for now, but think Boxee and Netflix in future), Apps like Facebook and Twitter, can act as a home media streamer, and can pull videos for export to external media.
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CES 2010: Panasonic Boasts 152″ 3D Plasma TV – World’s Largest

Audio/Video, Home Theater, CES / By /

In a recurring theme at CES over the past few years, some large TV vendor is sure to outdo the previous year’s record of largest television set. This year it’s Panasonic who have announced a 152″ Full HD 3D Plasma display. Yes, 152 diagonal inches!

This is a 4096 x 2160 pixel panel that uses something called a “HD x 2 frame sequential method” for displaying discrete HD images for the left and right eyes. This is the same method uses in 3D theaters.

[press release]

CES 2010: Toshiba Shows Off multi-Cell CPU 3D TVs

Audio/Video, Home Theater, CES / By /

3-D is shaping up to be the hot theme of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show and amongst the players, Toshiba has just shown off quite a star – it’s Internet-connected Cell TV. And by Cell, we’re referring to the multiple 3.2GHz 8-core Cell processors that power its 3-D TV.

toshiba cell tv

In case you’re wondering, yes, that’s a lot of power, lots more than you would find in a normal desktop, but needed for rendering 3D TV.

Toshiba has said there will be 2 models – 55″ and 65″ and should debut sometime this year. No prices have been given.

[press release]

CES 2010: Boxee and D-Link Announce Boxee Box Media Center

Audio/Video, Home Theater, CES, Computers / By /

boxee box by d-linkBoxee has teamed up with D-Link to produce the Boxee Box, a hardware version of their popular software. The Boxee Box brings TV shows, movies and other Internet content to your TV without a PC a la many other media center boxes.

One of the main ideas behind Boxee is to eliminate the pain of finding and sourcing content; Boxee chooses much of the content and organizes it for you.
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CES 2010: Sling Media Announces 4 New Products

Audio/Video, Home Theater, CES / By /

Sling Media (which was purchased by EchoStar (Dish) last year) has announced not 1, but 4 new products [press release].

First is the Sling Touch Control 100 which is a touch-screen remote control with a 4.3″ touchscreen and a rechargeable battery that gets changed in an accompanying cradle. The Sling Touch can control most IR-based devices, as well as communicate with other devices via IP over a 802.11 WiFi home network.

sling touch control 100

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CES 2010: Sony, IMAX and Discovery Teaming Up to Launch 3D TV Network

Audio/Video, Home Theater, CES / By /

Sony, Discovery (Channel) and IMAX are teaming up [press release] to launch a 3D TV network in the US, but not until 2011.

It remains to be seen whether the actual 3D programming will be limited or not. After all, it’s not like IMAX productions number in the thousands. On the other hand, we’re suprised at how quickly home 3D technology and content seems to be taking off.

CES 2010: Skype Adding HD Telephony To LG, Panasonic TVs

Audio/Video, Home Theater, CES, News, Phones / By /

skypeSkype is partnering with TV makers to include their telephony service into TVs in 2010. So far, Panasonic and LG are signed up: LG Electronics will add Skype to its NetCast enabled displays, while Panasonic will add it to select sets equipped with its VieraCast services.

Of course, you will still need an active Internet connection in order to make use of this service, but it’ll certainly make it more convenient and comfortable to make calls from your sofa. It will be interesting to see how well this actually works.

Press Release

Review: Tenqa SP-109 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker

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

Tenqa SP109 Wireless Bluetooth SpeakerI had the pleasure of spending a recent long holiday weekend with Tenqa’s latest offering in the world of nearly cable free speaker solutions, the Tenqa SP-109 Wireless Bluetooth Speaker. (I say nearly because they do require a power cord, though Tenqa does have alternatives that do away with that as well.) There were two criteria that were particularly important to me when investigating a Bluetooth speaker system. First was Bluetooth range, I had fears that while I might not have any cables connecting my Bluetooth enabled music player to the speakers, there might be a pesky invisible tether keeping my phone all but docked next to the speakers. The second was audio quality, I don’t claim to be an audiophile but I have a developed enough of an ear to tell the difference between a *thud* and whatever that hollow noise that speakers often produce as a sad alternative to it.
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Warner Bros Program Offers Upgrades of DVDs to Blu-ray Discs

Audio/Video, Home Theater, News / By /

Yup, the title pretty much says it all. Ship them your old Warner Bros DVD movies and for a replacement fee (starting around $8 per disc), they will send you Blu-ray versions of those flicks.

I’m surprised at the low number of titles and you should consider first whether the upgrade price is worth it. You may not really get much additional value in the Blu-ray title.

You can find the service at the DVD2Blu website.

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