As the media giants look for more creative ways to snag our attention even for just a brief moment, Horizon Media is partnering with Backchannelmedia to introduce an all new method at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods, which opens on May 17th. Hailed as the "first ever" of its kind, the TV-to-Internet click-through advertising platform will enable viewers to point and click at icons / links / etc. on their TV screen with their remote. Upon doing so, their broadband connected PC will be directed to a related website where the viewer can learn more about a product or actually make a purchase. We're also told that WCVB-DT (ABC) Channel 5 in Boston will be the first broadcast TV station to sign on and utilize the technology, but there's no mention of other stations following suit. We'll admit, the idea is pretty ingenious, but whether or not it'll actually work as advertised (ahem) remains to be seen.

[Via TVWeek]

We really love when our favorite gadgets come together and today Embedded Automation posted a new plug-in (beta) that allows mControl to have two-way control of Vista Media Center and its Extenders. mControl is Windows software that will link together all your connected devices like say your lights, security system, thermostats, IP WiFi cameras, all your HT gear -- via IR or RS-232 -- and now Vista Media Center. If your imagination hasn't already starting running wild think about this; someone rings your doorbell, Battlestar Galactica pauses and a message box pops up on your HDTV, so you click the remote and now your viewing your front door camera. Until recently you had to be Bill Gates to have this kind'a stuff at your house, but thanks to companies like mControl, it's a reality even if you're on a budget. Another picture after the jump.

The good news is that after four weeks of being in Beta the super cool Niveus Movie Library is ready to go prime time. The bad news is that we can't afford to buy a Niveus Media Center, so we can't use it. But for those lucky few, you can now download the ultimate software that gives you access to just about every movie stored on your Media Center, no matter if you recorded it, riped it -- yes even Blu-ray discs -- or downloaded it. And not only does it look cool, but you also get easy access to the cover art and meta data of each movie. As for the rest of the Vista Media Center community, we continue to wait for a nice plug-in that still looks like Vista Media Center, but with any luck Niveus will eventually be kind enough to share its new toy, the way it has with its Media Center Companion software.

In case you didn't catch it, there used to be an internet video platform operating under the codename Jittr Networks. Don't bother learning that factoid, though -- it has relaunched, official-like, under the name Vusion (please disregard that the Vusion name overlaps with a baby ointment). Competition to deliver streaming HD video over the internet is heating up, and Vusion is promising to give 95-percent of all broadband customers access to crispy, instant-on, 720p images. Vusion's secret sauce is the familiar combo of network infrastructure and a cleverly-acronymed WARP technology. Don't get us wrong -- we're all for internet streaming of HD, and we think know that it's coming; but we won't start lining up until content providers do. [Warning: PDF read link]


[Via HDTVMagazine]

Just over a month ago Cyberlink was the first to announce its product would support BD Live and today ArcSoft claims it's the first to be "certified." Unfortunately, ArcSoft failed to mention exactly when this free update would be available, so for now if you can't go without the current unimpressive features already available on select discs, PowerDVD is the only game in town. Regardless, the Blu-ray playback software market is really heating up, and although none of them offer a full featured player yet, with BD Live checked off the list that only leaves the highest quality lossless audio support.

While Toshiba still hasn't announced any new HD moves since withdrawing from the format war earlier this year, its Brazilian arm may be moving on with a hybrid HTPC. Powered by a Core Duo 6300 and Vista Home Premium, Semp Toshiba's Spectra packs a TV tuner and an optical drive ready for Blu-ray and HD DVD and should be available later this month. Society Eletromercantil Paulista merged with Toshiba in 1977 and has operated as Semp Toshiba in Brazil ever since, but it might be working a little more independently of its parent company than usual on this project, unless there are more Toshiba-branded Blu-ray products on the way. We'll keep this one on rumor status pending a more official announcement (or a significant improvement in our Portuguese skills.) Check out another image after the break.

Don't call it a comeback Media Center -- no seriously, don't call it a Media Center, they don't like that, call it "the system that delivers on the promises of Media Center" -- soon you'll be able to get FUZE's media system software via other manufacturers. According to CEPro, they're negotiating with "a number of other companies" to put FUZE software on multimedia devices to work with web based audio control, v2 Media Center Extenders and more. Until now the only way to get the company's software into your house is through a custom installer, and it's not giving up that market, but expect a new, broader opportunity to get FUZE Media Systems once the agreements are done later this year.

Yeah, this question's been swirling for as long as a 64-bit flavor of Windows Vista has been around, but we couldn't help but pose it now that the world at large has had a chance to experiment a touch and hopefully provide Cody (and everyone else wondering the same) with a bit of advice.

"I'm looking for a TV tuner for a desktop PC that I'm planning on building, but I can't seem to find one without conflicting reviews. Which tuner works well with Vista x64 and can handle ATSC signals that will stand alone after February of 2009? I've noticed HDHomeRun, but I'd like to keep the cost down (below $100 or so) if possible, and I'm also hoping to find some sort of internal PCI / PCIe card -- though I won't argue with USB / external solutions."

With the plethora of options out there, we're sure some of you have found some real winners / losers. Don't hold back, open up and help Cody get his OTA HD on.

Got a burning question that you'd love to toss out for Engadget HD (or its readers) to take a look at? Tired of Google's blank stares when you ask for real-world experiences? Hit us up at ask at engadgethd dawt com and keep an eye on this space -- your inquiry could be next.

It seems like everybody and their proverbial uncle wants to get in on the delivery of HD via the internet. EdgeStream (not to be confused with NetStreams) is a new entry into the streaming field, and based on the name, it's safe to assume an edge-network is the central bit here. Like most players in this field, specific details are shrouded over by either techy or catchy names. EdgeStream took the techy approach, and touts it Internet Congestion Tunnel Through (ICCT) and Continuous Route Optimization (CROS) technologies for delivering a smooth, eye-popping viewing experience here. Our own experience with their demos was less than stellar, but Rome wasn't built in a day, was it? At this point, we welcome all entries in the hopes that one of them will catch on and deliver on three counts: smooth playback (some initial buffering is acceptable), great picture quality and studio support.

Here we are almost two years with Blu-ray and we still don't have the perfect player. Sure, the PS3 is going to finally get DTS-HD support, but it still can't bitstream the latest codecs and it still need a gizmo to use with an universal remote. There are some nicely equipped stand-alone players, but none that support BD Live yet. This only leaves HTPC software, which with the most recent updates supports BD Live and the next-gen codecs, or do they? As always, the devil is in the details and in the case of trying to enjoy TrueHD or DTS-HD on a PC, it's a pretty big devil. You see while the latest versions support both next-gen codecs, because of the lack of a protected audio path in Windows, the audio gets down sampled. As you might expect this still ends up sounding better than we're used to, but it's by no means lossless. Like just about all the limitations of Blu-ray, it's a temporary problem -- in fact the required hardware is expected in the second quarter of '08. The cool part is that you'll have the option to either decode in the PC or in your AV/R. The bad part is that you'll have to upgrade your sound card and playback software.

While Shuttle's KPC most certainly wasn't aimed at the enthusiast in the crowd, its newest XPC definitely is. The XPC G5 6801M gets going with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ processor, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 320GB hard drive, LG's GGC-H20L Blu-ray / HD DVD combo drive, ATI's 256MB HD 3450 graphics card, a DVB-T tuner, 25-in-1 multicard reader and 7.1-channel audio output. Moreover, you'll find gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, a slew of USB / eSATA ports, DVI / VGA out (DVI-HDMI adapter thrown in) and a bundled remote to make your life even easier. If you're digging where this is going, you can latch on to one of these boxes for €1,091 ($1,727), and if you've turned a cold shoulder to HD DVD, a BD-only unit can be had for €167 ($264) less.

[Via Bios Magazine]

Lots of HTPC fans have been salivating over the promise of the Hauppauge HD PVR. That pesky "analog hole" looks like it might be the best solution for our imperfect tech world. Without integrated Windows MCE support yet, the race is on to deliver some PVR software that's step above the bundled apps. SageTV has already tantalized us with advance info on the hardware, so you know support in its product is coming soon. Now we see that SnapStream has a prototype unit in its mitts, so you can assume it's cooking in everything needed for Beyond TV. But neither of them is going to be first to deliver -- that honor goes to GB-PVR, which did a wayback machine number on us and built support in to its 1.2.9 release back on March 9th. Nice 0-day hardware support! Turns out the poor developer is just "too busy with other stuff" and doesn't have HD content to really show this off right now, though (they're located in New Zealand).

UPDATE: The developer himself wants to clarify the motivation behind his quote: because he's in New Zealand, which uses DVB-T for free OTA HD, he personally doesn't have a need for the HD PVR. He thinks the HD PVR will be huge in N. America, though. Thanks for the clarification and the hard work, Graeme!

Read - Hauppauge HD PVR on the SnapStream bench
Read - GB-PVR announced support for HD PVR in March

If you've been courting the idea of picking up a mini PC resembling an overstuffed history book with a glossy black finish, ASUS' got just the thing. Housing an Intel processor, up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, slot-loading DVD / Blu-ray (optional) drive, up to 1TB of hard drive space, a 256MB GeForce 8600M and 7.1-channel audio out, this thing is an ATSC tuner away from being a pretty potent little HTPC. You'll also find gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, an integrated IR receiver, FireWire, 10-in-1 multicard reader, HDMI / VGA out (DVI via bundled adapter) and a multimedia keyboard / mouse combo to go along with that MCE remote. ASUS also promised that it's newest 3.4-kilogram (7.5-pound) desktop keeps ultra-quiet, but sadly, it failed to mention a price or release date.

[Via DailyTech]

The high-end world of multi-terabyte media servers is usually well beyond our interests as some of them cost more than we make in a year, but we do like to dream. The upgrade costs for HD fans that're making the transition from DVD to Blu-ray might be a hard $400 pill to swallow for some, but if you want to store all your movies on a disk so they're available on demand, you'll have to be willing to spend much, much more. On a post on Automated Home, a masked installer confesses that "Right now I'm selling next to no servers at all....and the reason is that everyone wants a "High Definition" server." We can't say we blame 'em, seriously, once you take a look at Blu-ray on a nice display, it's hard to go back to DVD -- even if it means you'll have instant access to your entire library. If nothing else, this should help motivate the studios to get the managed copy part of AACS worked out, because as we've seen in the past, people will find a way to enjoy content the way they want it.

A study by the Convergence Consulting Group, aptly titled "The Battle for the North American Couch Potato," shows that nine percent of full-episode TV programs are being soaked up in front of a computer. The figure is expected to rise to 23-percent by 2010, and the study show where there's room for growth -- full-length content. The task chair potato's diet consists of short clips, with a full 75-percent of the clips originating from TV content. Obviously, people like the content being pumped out by the studios, but where are the profits? We've seen evidence that online ads are just as effective as broadcast ones, so the question becomes how studios can use online distribution to increase rather than simply shift profits. So where do you think the tipping point is?