Filed under: Cables, Ports, Switches It's rather difficult to say whether or not DSP within a matrix switcher is -- how do you say... necessary? -- but regardless of want versus need, Extron Electronics is providing the ends. The MPX Plus 866 is hailed as a "a revolutionary new multi-format matrix switcher with integrated audio digital signal processing," the industry's first to wed VGA, video and audio signal routing with ProDSP. Said audio processing platform is based on a 32 / 64-bit floating point DSP engine, which offers up "an extensive selection of audio DSP tools designed to facilitate audio...
Filed under: Fiber Well, wouldn't you know it? Another one year birthday for another locale in AT&T's admittedly small U-verse TV family. As of now, the fiber-based programming service is available to over 355,000 living units in the St. Louis region, including sections of Arnold, Florissant, Manchester, Maplewood, St. Peters and Wellston. As always, the operator has promised to continue expanding the service on an ongoing basis, though we're beginning to wonder when "expand" will refer to something more than just a few miles out of cities already covered. Yes, that's jealousy on our breath -- so?AT&T's U-verse TV goes...
Filed under: Industry, Cable, SatelliteVirgin Media's in a pretty big hole compared to Sky on the HD front. As it stands, VM has a single linear high-def station (BBC HD), while Sky delivers 29. Pretty easy choice, right? Virgin Media's CEO Neil Berkett, in a presentation to the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York, noted that it was looking to "level the linear content playing field versus Sky," and also mentioned a "plan to add linear high-definition channels." Unfortunately, he failed to elaborate on a quantity or time frame for delivery, but at least we know it's...
Filed under: Blu-ray Oh the cat and mouse game of DRM, how we love it -- as long as content owners make these unsuccessful attempts to protect their business models, we'll have this great game to watch. As you'd expect if you've been following this up until now, it is Fox that is once again doing whatever it can to prevent you from having your way with its content. The latest BD+ application has already successfully locked down 16 new Fox releases (not all in the US) and according to a SlySoft developer, it'll probably be February before the latest...
Filed under: Displays, Mitsubishi, Projector Mitsubishi's HC7000 1080p projector just started leaving the docks not too, too long ago, and now the kind folks over at BigPictureBigSound have published a thorough review after spending a decent bit of time with it. Installation and setup was said to be "a simple affair," and one of the first things they noticed upon firing it up was just how quiet it was while operating. In fact, critics deemed it the quietest projector they had tested in this price range. Testers fired up an upscaled DVD after calibration procedures were done, and what they...
Filed under: Reviews, Blu-ray Sometime between the third crescent moon and a witch's equinox (or early last week, to be specific), Criterion began shipping out its long-awaited Blu-ray Disc collection. The question remains, though: are these much ballyhooed discs worth their weight in gold, or what? We've rounded up a number of reviews from around the web covering a wide range of the first wave titles, and generally speaking, critics were floored. Almost every single reviewer had a difficult time hitting the "stop" button on their praises of the visual / auditory qualities, and while the plots of each film...
An '80s themed holiday website? Have I died? A Betamax Xmas is the greatest thing to happen to me this holiday season since I asked Santa for a TiVo HD XL and he said maybe. The site is set up like an old living room with a big tube TV in the center, which plays nothing but vintage Christmas programming. You can even change the channel if you get sick of reindeer cartoons and decide you're jonesing for some heart-warming claymation. To learn how to post your favorite websites to our Website of the Day group, read more...
Filed under: Tuners Tired of those vanilla USB tuners, are you? Not really getting the performance you deserve when tuning into your HD locals? Then have a glance at K-world's USB Lamborghini UB385-T -- but look quick, else you might miss it. Terrible jokes aside, this wicked quick DVB-T tuner is unnecessarily flashy, but early reports suggest that it works remarkably well. Setup was lightning fast, reception was world-class and the design was really something special. And heck, with a price tag like this (S$140; around 93 greenbacks), you won't even have to pony up too much for the branding.K-world's...
Filed under: Industry, Tuners, Satellite File this one in the category of "Oh, no they didn't!" Sadly, it seems they really have. DirecTV has sent out an email stating the following: "DirecTV has suspended the development of the HDPC-20 tuner project that was designed to integrate DirecTV service into Windows Media Center after assessing the impact of missing the August 2008 release of Windows Media Center update and considering timing of the next release." The note goes on to say that both the satcaster and Microsoft understand that folks are clamoring for an easy way to get DirecTV content on...
Filed under: Industry, Cables, Other formats A full year after we expected wireless HD to really take off, we're barely in a position different than the one we started in. If we can point to any initiative in particular that has grown legs over the course of 2008, it'd be AMIMON's WHDI. Today, the company has shipped its 100,000th Wireless High-Definition (WHDI) chipset, a milestone that's pretty impressive given the general ignorance of wireless HDTVs in the consumer space. As of now, these chipsets are shipping in ultrathin LCD TVs by top-tier brands (think Sony, Mitsubishi and Sharp), and they're...
Filed under: Blu-ray, DVRs, Recorders, Mitsubishi With all the talk of Blu-ray stalling out, it's easy to see why Blu-ray DVRs haven't been something that manufacturers have even tried to sell the American public. Over in Japan, things are a little different -- just take Mitsubishi's DVR-BF2000 Blu-ray DVR model, for example. The hefty sum of ¥178,000 ($1900 US) nets you a DVR with a 500GB hard disk, dual tuners and a disc burner that can write out on BD-R/RE media and DVD-R/RW for when you don't need such capacious archiving. The unit also has some automatic editing features for...
Filed under: Industry, Satellite, New contentIf you've been content just focusing on sectors in your own nation, you may have missed all the DTH congestion in India. At last count, there are five different satcasters serving the country, and now some are making accelerated pushes to get high-def programming on the air in order to stand out. A recent report from New Delhi asserts that Dish TV and Sun Direct are both hoping to add high-definition content in separate tiers within "the next few months." Specifics are relatively scant, but Indians can probably expect between 10 to 15 HD stations...
Windows only: HD Hacker is a free application which allows you to backup and restore sectors on your hard drives. You can backup and restore the master boot record, the boot sector from logical drives, or any other user specified sector you need to backup. Backing up the master boot record is an advised step before messing around with repartitioning or installing a new operating system to create a dual boot system. For other boot record magic, check out how to fix your master boot record with an Ubuntu Live CD. HD Hacker is freeware, Windows only. HD Hacker...
TiVo Series 3 and HD owners woke up to the Fall update today. There are a few, slight UI changes that owners should greatly appreciate. Primarily, the main menu is better labeled with Video On Demand and Music, Photos & Showcases taking the place of Find Programs & Downloads, Music, Photos, Product, & More, and Showcases headings. Might seem like a minor bump but it definitely shows that TiVo is ready to fully embrace Internet video. Now, how about Amazon HD and Hulu? A totally revamped interface would be nice, too....
Filed under: Cable, New contentCox Communications dropped a nice bundle of HD nets on Kansas in late October, but apparently it's not quite done for the year. Effective December 30th, the carrier will add SPEED HD and FX HD to Shawnee County (other areas aren't specified) on slots 641 and 651, respectively. Two days later, MLB Network will show up on digital cable slot 263, with no high-def accomplice in tow. For shame.Cox adding SPEED HD, FX HD and MLB Network in Kansas originally appeared on Engadget HD on Sun, 07 Dec 2008 03:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for...
Between the fake blood and theatrics, it’s easy to forget that wrestling is big business. But World Wrestling Entertainment pulls in some $400 million a year in revenue, and with an eye to making that business even bigger — break out the steel cages and folding chairs — it’s bulking up its online video efforts. While the WWE has offered clips from matches and other content on its site for a while, it was just in the past year that the company has turned its attention to online video. First it launched a number of online original shows, like The...
Filed under: Cable, New contentWhen Comcast gets on a roll, it gets on a roll. The carrier's latest trio that it has been pushing all over the nation involves FX HD, SPEED HD and FOX News HD. Needless to say, this very threesome has been revealed in Reston, Virginia... sort of, anyway. According to a tipster with a Vista MCE box in the area, these three have shown up on the EPG, though every one is still currently unactivated. It should be noted, however, that the last time he saw this happen, the channels went live within a fortnight. We'll...
Filed under: Displays, Mitsubishi, LCD If you're dead set on getting all your video and audio delivered from a single device, you could do worse than Mitsubishi's LT-46149 LCD and its iSP (Integrated Sound Projector) -- at least judging by the Audioholics review of the unit. The 16 beaming speakers across the bottom of the bezel proved more than just a toy and actually could be dialed in to create a real soundfield, albeit lacking in ultimate SPL output and bass. The lack of discrete input codes wasn't really solved by the automatic input selection and the backlighting could have...
Filed under: Blu-ray After Home Media Magazine took a week off from analyzing the Nielsen VideoScan numbers -- probably due to the short week -- Blu-ray manages to finally do in the last week of November what it did during every week in October: gain double digit market share of the top 20 titles.This was mostly due to Hancock which managed over 14 percent of the market from its standard-def brother. The other big help was from old favorites like Transformers and the latest Indiana movie. In fact the only other new release this week that managed to make the...
