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Myka ION brings Hulu, Boxee and other web content to your TV

by Darren Murph posted Nov 6th 2009 at 7:11PM

It's been almost a full year since we heard a peep from the fine folks at Myka, but it looks like we could be talking about 'em a lot more often judging by the specs list on its latest contraption. The simply-titled ION is an Atom-based media PC that relies on NVIDIA's Ion graphics set and a customized interface that brings Hulu, Boxee and pretty much any other web content you can stumble upon to your television. Within, you'll find a 1.6GHz dual-core Atom 330 CPU, up to 4GB of RAM, ten USB 2.0 ports, VGA / DVI / HDMI outputs, an eSATA connector, Ethernet and plenty of audio outputs. The fanless design ensures that things remain quiet, and for those oozing cash, a Blu-ray drive, HDD and WiFi module can be implanted. It's up for order right now starting at $379, but you'll be stuck waiting four to six weeks for delivery.

Gallery: Myka ION brings Hulu, Boxee and other web content to your TV

Okoro delivers mini Media PCs with a full size price tag

by Richard Lawler posted Sep 30th 2009 at 3:43PM

Continuing its streak of questionably high priced media PCs Okoro has announced the new OMS-Q100 and OMS-Q200 Quantum mini Digital Entertainment Systems. Combining an Intel Atom processor and NVIDIA ION in the OMS-Q200 and Mobile Core 2 Duo in the OMS-Q200 with 4GB of RAM with 320GB of hard drive space, 7.1 audio outputs, OTA & QAM recording capability (plus optional digital cable tuner) these tiny, quiet boxes could find a welcoming home theater somewhere, though the starting price of $1,295 may make for a difficult fit. You probably don't need our help to put together something equivalent or better for less than that, but feel welcome to it.

CyberPower serves up water-cooled LAN Mini H2o SFF rig

by Darren Murph posted Sep 2nd 2009 at 2:59PM

If you're looking for an ultra compact, ultra quiet new machine to act as your resident HTPC, CyberPower might just have an option worth eying. The all new LAN Mini H2o is said to be one of the planet's tiniest water-cooled desktop gaming rigs, and while it's equipped with Intel Core 2 Duo / Core 2 Quad CPUs, NVIDIA or ATI graphics and more hard drive space than you'll initially know what to do with, there's absolutely nothing stopping you from repurposing this is a media center PC. The box checks in at 11.25- x 8.75- x 7-inches and weighs just ten pounds, and there's even room for a WiFi adapter, Blu-ray drive and HDMI socket. Feel free to customize yours now, with the Core 2 Quad Q9550-equipped base rig starting at $965.

Viako's Ion-equipped HTPC is more like an HD-capable nettop

by Darren Murph posted Aug 12th 2009 at 6:19AM


You can tussle over semantics all day long (particularly machine translated semantics), but there's little doubt that Viako's Ion-equipped machine is more than eager to handle whatever high-def material you throw its way. The Mini E series of HTPCs (or nettops, if you will) looks to be available in a variety of configurations, with the higher-end model snagging an Atom N330 processor, NVIDIA's GeForce 9400M GPU, 2GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, integrated WiFi, VGA / DVI / HDMI outputs, Ethernet, plenty of USB sockets and audio / in ports. There's no mention of price nor a stateside release date, but those in Seoul ought to find it in their local shops pretty soon.

[Via AVING]

Sonic brings 3D movies into the home via CinemaNow

by Darren Murph posted Jul 21st 2009 at 1:43PM


Like it or not, 3D movies are coming to your house. If you're looking to be one of the first on the block to stream the third-dimension onto your computer monitor or 3D-ready HDTV, Sonic Solutions is making sure you have that option. Announced today, the company is utilizing Roxio's CinemaNow platform to provide users access to 3D films, and all of those files are optimized for use with NVIDIA's GeForce GPUs and its 3D Vision / 3D Vision-ready displays. Frankly, we're shocked to see CinemaNow involved in all of this, but this just might be the offering that makes the service at least marginally relevant again. Sadly, there's no hard data surrounding pricing and release, but needless to say, you should probably go ahead and don those funky goggles just in case it goes down sooner rather than later.

ArcSoft's SimHD plug-in takes SD footage to "near HD"

by Darren Murph posted Apr 2nd 2009 at 4:38AM


Another month, another upscaling technology. Tapping into NVIDIA's versatile CUDA architecture, ArcSoft has just announced its SimHD upscaling tech, which scales SD and DVD content to "near high-definition quality." The app integrates with the company's heralded TotalMedia Theater, though you'll need an NVIDIA GPU in order to really take advantage. We're told that it's compatible with millions of NVIDIA GPUs from the GeForce 8 Series onwards, including GeForce and Quadro lines. The pain for better looking pixels? $19.95 and a 5MB download, which may or may not end up costing more than the code itself if you use Time Warner Cable.

NVIDIA offers up GeForce 3D Vision, takes WoW players further down the rabbit hole

by Richard Lawler posted Jan 7th 2009 at 9:12PM


Look for something to drive your new Samsung monitor or 120Hz 3D HDTV? Enter NVIDIA's GeForce 3D Vision package, loaded up with powered 3D glasses (no red / blue silliness here, charged via USB) and an IR emitter to keep everything synced between the display and your glasses. Left 4 Dead, WoW: WotLK and several other games are already compatible with more expected to come soon. CES had a quick demo and didn't notice any of the headaches sometimes associated with stereocopic 3D, but at $399 for the display and $199 for this set when it's available in the next few days, we're not sure how close we want to get to those zombies, but WoW fans may see things differently.

Psystar slaps Apple around, releases Mac clones with Blu-ray / GeForce 9800GT

by Darren Murph posted Oct 28th 2008 at 4:34PM


While suits from Psystar and Apple are currently attempting to work things out via alternative dispute resolution, the former company is doing something the latter company won't: offer OS X-capable machines with built-in Blu-ray and NVIDIA's GeForce 9800GT. Showing no mercy whatsoever in a recent release, Psystar calls Steve Jobs out for his controversial "bag of hurt" comment and proceeds to inform the general public that it's "now shipping" OS X-compatible PCs (better known as Open Computers) with Blu-ray optical drives and the GeForce 9800GT GPU. Based on pricing figures gathered from the company's website, a 6x Blu-ray writer is a $310 upgrade over a dual-layer DVD burner, while the 512MB GeForce 9800GT will set you back $200 more than the 8600GT. Whatcha got to say now, Steve? Huh? Huh?

[Via MacUser]

Mitsubishi's 3D plans brought into focus, PC gaming to play a role

by Darren Murph posted Jul 8th 2008 at 7:04PM


When Mitsubishi admitted that it was holding hands with NVIDIA and Aspen Media for no other reason than to prove that they all three hearted 3D, we must say, we were miffed. Now, however, it seems that plans are finally coming to light, and everything is starting to make a whole lot more sense. Reportedly, the three firms are gearing up to showcase how well they can work together to produce eye-pleasing 3D PC gaming results in select retail outlets this July. At first, none of the components will be sold together per se, but bundle deals are definitely in the works. Whether or not budding PC gamers are ready to switch to a DLP-based HDTV as their primary monitor, however, remains to be seen.

Mitsubishi teams with NVIDIA and Aspen for in-home 3D solution

by Darren Murph posted Jun 23rd 2008 at 5:05PM


Neither Mitsubishi, NVIDIA nor Aspen Media are members of the recently formed 3D@Home Consortium, but that's not stopping the trio from teaming up in order to bring the third-dimension into the home. In a rather vague release issued today, the three companies are seemingly coming together in order deliver "high-value 3D content to the consumer at home in one convenient package." What exactly is in that package remains to be seen. From what we can glean, Aspen will be providing the Aspen Media Server, which will in turn possess one of NVIDIA's 3D-capable GeForce FX Go GPUs. From there, we'd bet Mitsubishi throws in an HDTV to seal the deal. C'mon you guys, throw us a bone here, will ya?

Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater 7.1 HDMI sound card does bitstream output from your HTPC

by Darren Murph posted Jun 20th 2008 at 11:33AM

Earlier this month, ASUS introduced the "world's first HDMI 1.3a compliant audio / video enhancement combo card." Who knew numero dos was so close behind? Auzentech has just announced its very own HDMI 1.3-native PCIe audio combo card, which is built around Creative's X-Fi processor and enables PC users to easily output 7.1-channel audio with no downsampling. Essentially, the Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater 7.1 "accepts video from either an internal or external connection, mixes it with digital audio, and outputs the combined video and lossless multichannel audio via a single HDMI 1.3 port." Yep, that means Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio codecs are fully supported. The only digs? For one, pricing remains a mystery, but the real kicker is the September release -- talk about a long wait.

NVIDIA shows off Tegra on video

by Joshua Topolsky posted Jun 3rd 2008 at 5:06PM


Yesterday we told you about NVIDIA's new mobile platform, Tegra, and today, we've got some videos from the company showing off the system, and giving you a good impression of just how much less juice this architecture uses compared to the competition. Check the videos after the break demonstrating the systems' lean energy needs, HDMI output capabilities, blazing fast gaming, and that fancy UI we keep telling you about.

Continue reading NVIDIA shows off Tegra on video

HD decoding CPU usage shootout: ATI vs nVidia

by Erik Hanson posted Dec 31st 2007 at 3:22PM

ATI vs nVidiaWhile around here you're more likely to see a flame war erupt about Blu-ray versus HD DVD, on many computer gaming websites the war is over ATI and nVidia, with the two major video card manufacturers constantly leapfrogging each other in an attempt to benchmark the highest scores on games like Unreal Tournament and Doom. Ars Technica has a head-to-head comparison on how well the their latest offerings perform decoding high-definition content, using an Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive and some prerecorded 1080p and 1080i content. While both camps did similarly well, ATI was better at playing back VC-1-encoded HD DVD content, and nVidia held a slight edge on 1080i recordings. The benefits to both allow even older video hardware to take a load off the CPU, meaning home theater PC builders can pair a cheaper CPU and video card for playing back HD on the cheap.

Alienware Hangar 18 could get Blu-ray, CableCARD options

by Darren Murph posted Jun 15th 2007 at 10:26AM

Flashy though it may be, Alienware's first major attempt at a end-all HTPC solution certainly fell short in a number of areas, but it looks like the brains of the operation are already well aware and looking to make things right. According to a recent interview with the company, Chris Lanier found that Alienware is disappointed by the lack of CableCARD support in the current Hangar 18, and while it was "originally supposed to ship" with said technology, the next revision -- "due within the next month or two" -- should give users the option. Additionally, Blu-ray support will supposedly be included as well, but it wasn't clear if we'd be seeing a writer or just a reader. It's hard out there for an early adopter, eh?

HP's m8010y and d4890y desktops to sport HD combo drives, digital tuners

by Darren Murph posted May 7th 2007 at 10:35AM

Just because HP has buried the Digital Entertainment Center doesn't mean that it's forgetting about the media-centric crowd, as the company's forthcoming m8010y and d4890y will offer up some fairly swank high-definition niceties. Aside from offering customers the option for an Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad processor and NVIDIA's GeForce 8800 GTS graphics card, this duo will also include a mysterious dual-format combo drive to handle both BD and HD DVD responsibilities. While we can only assume that the GGW-H10N will be the drive of choice, both PCs will boast HD DVD / Blu-ray playback with burning abilities including on the latter, and as if that wasn't enough HD goodness crammed into a PC, moneyed consumers can also opt to have ATI's TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner pre-installed as well. There's no word just yet surrounding pricing, exact configurations, or a launch timeframe, but word on the street suggests that the combo drive should be made available to the adoring public within "four to six weeks."




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