Filed under: Desktops, HDTV

Vista’s fun run-in with CableCARD started earlier this year when we all found out at CES that they had every intention to finally make Windows (specifically Vista Home Premium and Ultimate) work with your CableCARD setup. No more annoying, awful Motorola high def DVRs, no more ATSC tuners, no more standard def nonsense. As we all found out, however, users who prefer to roll their own Media Center box (like yours truly) will be left out of the option entirely — support will only be available for CableLabs certified boxen, which home-rolled are, of course, not. Now we come to find out some even worse news about CableCARD and Vista: not only will you not be able to re-stream your high def media to other Windows machines (sorry, Vista capable Media Center Extenders only, i.e. the Xbox 360, and not much else), you won’t even be able to transcode and sync to your PMC or other devices, as is currently possible. So, recap: no streaming, Windows Media Connect is null, and no conversion and syncing to your portable; don’t be surprised if before the cable industry and CableLabs is through Microsoft further panders by disabling the fast-forward button in the expectation that you’ll sit patiently through the recorded commercials.

[Via BoingBoing]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Features, HDTV, Home Entertainment

The world’s first THX-certified, dual CableCARD DVR has finally arrived in the form of TiVo’s Series3. It doesn’t come cheap with a price tag of $799 (don’t forget service!), but it’s a fine cable company DVR replacement if your budget allows it. What are you waiting for, click on for the full rundown and lots more pics!

Design

Oh come on, like you need us to tell you that the S3 is TiVo’s best looking DVR to date. The solid unit has a gleaming black top with a stylish black and silver front bezel. From a couch, the front-panel OLED display serves little practical purpose without Chuck Yeager vision (or better), though we’ve really enjoyed studying it up close. TiVo’s trademark peanut remote is glossy, well balanced, and features pleasantly glowing buttons.

Functionality

The TiVo interface is exactly what you’d expect: after all these years, the competition still hasn’t been able to match the intuitiveness, ease, and power of the original DVR. Familiar features such as Wishlists, Suggestions, and Season Passes are present. Music and photo streaming from Mac or PC also work as expected.

Toggling between tuners can be performed via the programming info menu or by pressing the LiveTV button on the remote. Any two incoming signals can be recorded simultaneously with the option of watching a third signal of recorded content.

The Series3 is designed to replace a cable box, not control it. The S3 supports OTA broadcasts (both ATSC and NTSC) in addition to analog cable, but to fully appreciate the unit a pair of CableCARDs are needed. If our experience is representative, getting them installed will test your patience. The S3 supports CableCARD 1.0, and it’s our understanding a single M-Card (CC 1.0+) will replace 2 CableCARDs once they become available.

HD details

Obviously, the primary selling point of this unit is its ability to handle HD. Not only does the S2 handle OTA and digital NTSC, it includes a variety of settings to optimize incoming content for specific screen types. Unlike analog recordings, digital content is directly recorded bit for bit without any degradation of quality. The trade-off is that the unit only stores about 30 hours of HD programming (or up to 300 hours of SD). Tribune guide data now includes information source video resolution in case your eyes still can’t tell the difference between a nice cable signal and a fat HD pipe. The Now Playing list includes a dedicated HD folder.

Specifications

While the Series3 provides only two inputs (antenna and cable), the THX-certified unit finally provides numerous outputs including HDMI and optical audio. The S3 contains a 250GB Western Digital Caviar hard drive plus an eSATA port, which paves the way for future storage options. While we weren’t able to receive confirmation from TiVo, we feel it’s likely the internal hard drive can be upgraded. Connectivity to the mother ship is (still) handled via phone, Ethernet, or supported USB network adapters. The hardware supports AVC (aka H.264) though it hasn’t been enabled in the software yet, which leaves us wondering what TiVoCast might have in store for us down the road.

Disappointments and concerns

TiVo continues to develop and evaluate Multi-Room Viewing, TiVoToGo, and external hard drive support in relation to CableLabs certification. While we recognize certain aspects of this issue are largely out of TiVo’s control, the absence of these value-added features makes the MSRP more difficult to swallow. And while we were pleasantly surprised that the Series3 allows you to scan and tune unencrypted QAM programming, we were disappointed in the inability to manually map those channels to their respective networks. TiVo tells us this functionality is being evaluated for a future software update. Lastly, the cable industry appears to be in flux and it’s not clear when/if technologies such as OCAP and SDV might impact Series3 functionality.

Cost and Availability

Being an early adopter is gonna cost you. Those leaks and our own forecast were spot-on: $799 will be the price of admission. Unfortunately for potential S3 consumers, TiVo is at a disadvantage compared to the deep-pocketed cable companies and satellite providers who operate under a different business model and underwrite hardware costs. If it’s any consolation, the 30-hour Series1 and the HD DirecTiVo both retailed for $1k at launch (and then proceeded to drop in price).

Service fees remain $12.95 a month, or $6.95/month for those who currently have a non-bundled pricing unit subscription. TiVo also offers pre-paid pricing at the rate of $155.40 for one year or $299 for two years. TiVo is offering two promotions in conjunction with the release of the S3. First, you can prepay three years of service for the price of two ($299). Second, as we revealed last week, $199 lets you move Lifetime Service from a S1 or S2 unit to the new S3.

Units go on sale today at TiVo.com and should be showing up within the next week or so at Best Buy, Circuit City, Fry’s, and Ultimate Electronics. Good luck on that decision!

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

You can crank the total number of TV sets announced by Sony today up to twelve, because along with the seven BRAVIA LCDs we brought you just a little while ago, the company has also revealed five new rear projection models based on their Silicon Crystal Reflective Display (SXRD -- crystal becomes X-tal, get it?) technology. Each of these sets is part of the Grand WEGA line and features three SXRD chips along with the proprietary WEGA Engine HD and Digital Reality Creation Multi Function Version 2.5 systems, three HDMI inputs, and a full 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. The 70-inch, $7,800 KDS-R70XBR2 (pictured) and 60-inch, $5,300 KDS-R60XBR2 both trump the 60-inch, $4,500 KDS-60A2000, 55-inch, $4,000 KDS-55A2000, and 50-inch, $3,500 KDS-50A2000 by including native CableCARD support and integrated speakers, but the cheaper models will be available this summer, while you'll have to wait until fall to pick up either XBR set.

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Add another item to the list of lustworthy products that are contingent upon the eventual (we think) release of Windows Vista: the Niveus Media Center Denali Edition featuring…wait for it…built-in CableCARD support. It’s not surprising that the manufacturer of such high-end HTPCs as the K2 would be chosen by Microsoft to debut the Windows-CableCARD integration, as Niveus’ products have always sported cutting-edge features like 1TB hard drives, multiple analog and digital tuners, and whatever Intel’s latest speed demon processor happens to be. Consumers who are willing to shell out the $6,000+ that this box will likely cost will become the proud owners of what HDBeat is calling “the ultimate HD machine,” because along with receiving HD programming over cable, they’ll also be able to watch high-def flicks thanks to the included HD-DVD drive. [Warning: .doc link]

[Via HDBeat]

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Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Looks like Mitsubishi has been pretty busy lately, since they've just announced eleven new LCD and DLP HDTVs, with all but two of them sporting 1080p resolutions. The crowd of displays is headlined by a pair of 73-inch DLP sets, which both feature a host of marketing speak from Mitsubishi like Tru1080p (don't worry, it's 1080p for reals), TurboLight 180 (which claims to boost brightness by 10%), and the fairly meaningless NetCommand and ClearThought which manage connectivity. The WD-73732 and WD-73831 both include dual HDMI inputs, along with a FireWire port, CableCARD slot, and multi-format card readers. Rounding out the DLP displays are 52, 57 and 65-inch 1080p displays, which feature a new 6-Primary Color System that mixes cyan, magenta and yellow in with the usual RGB in order to create a supposedly brighter and more color accurate picture. Mitsubishi has some love for their LCD line as well, with two 37-inch (LT-37131 and LT-37132) and two 46-inch 1080p displays (LT-46131 and LT-46231), featuring similar connectivity to the DLP line but replacing CableCARD with DVI-I. Finally, we have the 52-inch and 62-inch 1280 x 720p LCDs, the WD-52531 and WD-62531, which claim 20 percent more brightness than last year's models, along with dual HDMI ports and Push720p tech to take care of analog and 1080i signals. Until we get a good pic of these, we're picturing Mitsubishi's laz0r projection set that they still have in the works. No word on pricing or availability for any of the models.

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

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Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs, Podcasts, Portable Audio, Portable Video, Robots

Filed under: Cellphones, Displays, Handhelds, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs, Podcasts, Tablet PCs