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ATI Theater 750 HD chip can bring OTA HD to PCs around the world

by Richard Lawler, posted Jun 4th 2009 at 6:52AM


No matter what country one finds themselves in, a PC equipped with a TV tuner powered by one of ATI's new Theater HD 750 chips should be able to tune into any over the air TV broadcasts available. These give a step up over the hardware in the company's old TV Wonder 650 line by adding PAL, SECAM and DVB-T support to NTSC, ATSC and ClearQAM access. Of course Media Center PC owners can set up all manner of DVR features, and for that all-ATI feel combines with ATI Stream software and videocards to transcode video into a variety of formats. Expect the new tuners to come out in PCI Express, USB stick and other flavors later this year, if you can't wait, try a glimpse of the preview trailer embedded after the break.

Continue reading ATI Theater 750 HD chip can bring OTA HD to PCs around the world

LG's HR400 Profile 2.0 Blu-ray recorder gets outed

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 1st 2009 at 8:33AM


So, why can't Yanks get ahold of these Blu-ray recorders again? All pent-up rage aside, what we're looking at above is LG's yet-to-be-formally-announced HR400, a Blu-ray recorder that will evidently be aimed initially at the European market. Packing BD-Live (Profile 2.0) support, a built-in DVB-T TV tuner and YouTube compatibility, this deck also arrives with 160GB of internal hard drive space for holding OTA recordings. Heck, this thing can even play back DivX HD files, stream media clips from other places on your network and upscale DVDs to 1080p. Is all that worth €599 ($852)? We're saying no, but you and your wallet can make your own darn decisions.

ASUS adds 4GB of storage to its USB Express TV Stick tuner

by Steven Kim, posted Apr 27th 2009 at 3:44AM

ASUS USB Express TV StickWe can't say that the market has been calling out for a USB stick that combines both a tuner and a flash drive into one tidy package, but that's just what ASUS has delivered with its new Express TV Stick. Aimed at markets outside the US, the Express TV Stick makes good use of the storage by packing all the software necessary to run the hybrid DVB-T / analog tuner right on the device itself. Plug into a USB 2.0 port, install a driver, and away you go. If you can record right to the flash drive -- and we don't see why you shouldn't be able to -- we think TV junkies who need a DVR with truly grab-and-go portability might find room for this among their gear.

Sony PlayTV already working (a little) in New Zealand

by Richard Lawler, posted Apr 24th 2009 at 1:32AM

How close is Sony's PlayTV DVR to working with New Zealand broadcasts? Very, or so it would seem, one reader wrote in to let us know the UK PlayTV unit he brought down to NZ in '08 has, since the 2.10 firmware update, put its DVB-T compatibility to work and started picking up some broadcasts. So far he's able to catch TV3 in 1080i and AC3 surround and even pause and buffer video, but no program scheduling support. On the other 7 Freeview channels? Video, but no audio so far. Sony hasn't documented any New Zealand compatibility in its upgrades, but at least judging by one users experience everything is being "worked in" in good time.

[Thanks, Jim]

Samsung's 46 and 55-inch B9000 HDTVs boasts widgets, wireless external media box

by Ross Miller, posted Apr 21st 2009 at 7:36PM

With no picture to show for it, unfortunately (that's the 8 series, pictured), Samsung's gone ahead and announced the 46-inch and 55-inch B9000 HDTVs, which looks to be a follow-up to the A950 models from last year. According to flatpanelshd, the latest addition to the Touch of Color series include LED backlights with localized dimming, Medi@2.0 with YouTube / Yahoo! widgets, built-in USB port, DLNA functionality, built-in DVB-T and DVB-C tuners, and most interesting, a wireless connection to an external media box that's reportedly similar to Sony's ZX1 -- no word on whether or not that means it's using WHDI. As for the other details, including pricing and availability, you're gonna have to keep waiting, we're afraid.

PlayTV upgraded with upscaling, more DVR features

by Richard Lawler, posted Apr 6th 2009 at 1:32PM


The PlayTV add-on for PlayStation 3 may be delayed in Auckland, but if it's already grabbing OTA TV for your system the latest software update brings some much needed new features to the table. Among the new additions, upscaling should bring a sharper picture to HDTVs everywhere, and a new XMB option that takes you direct to TV watching should streamline things appreciably. Hit up Joystiq for a quick video explaining all the changes or better yet, get that PS3 online and grab the update.

PlayTV's NZ debut purportedly delayed to add Freeview HD support

by Richard Lawler, posted Apr 3rd 2009 at 10:43AM


Bret? Present. Jemaine? Present. Murray? Present. PlayTV? ... Sony's PlayTV DVR add-on for the PlayStation 3 suffered through more than one delay before going on sale in Europe, and it appears thing will be no different in New Zealand, but at least with good reason - they're getting HD working this time. As it stands, the original version's dual HD DVB-T tuners are pretty useless since there aren't any Freeview stations broadcasting in that format in the UK and FreeSat HD support is still up in the air. David Hine from Sony revealed on the ButtonMasher podcast that a push back 'til the end of the year is related to the spread of high definition on the island, so that they can "work in" HD support before it launches, unleashing Remote Play and XMB powered HDTV watching upon the populace so they can catch season two of Flight of the Conchords as it was meant to be seen.

Shuttle's Mini H7 4500H media PC joins Blu-ray, DVB-S tuner in matrimony

by Ross Miller, posted Mar 31st 2009 at 4:23AM

Shuttle's back with another mini HTPC, the H7 4500H, only this time you can swap out that DVB-T tuner with a DVB-S for satellite TV. The cost of going for the latter means you have to settle onboard graphics only, but either way you're still getting DVR capabilities and Windows Media Center. Max configuration for the Vista-based machine includes 2.83GHz Intel Core 2 Quad, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285, 1TB SATA HDD, 4GB DDR2 RAM, and a Blu-ray writer. It's also got HDMI, SPDIF, eSATA, FireWire and six USB ports. Starting price is around €775 ($1,020), but if you're planning to get the whole kit and kaboodle, the price jumps to about €1858 ($2,450).

[Via I4U]

Sigmatek's HFDL-1080 brings an LCD to the mini-system desk party

by Steven Kim, posted Mar 17th 2009 at 8:27PM

Sigmatek HFDL-1080 mini-system
The niche product segment dedicated to "executive desktop" solutions will be getting a new entry in the "hi-fi with articulated LCD" category in late April (€159) thanks to Sigmatek's HFDL-1080. This piece of desk jewelry comes with a DVD spinner, DVB-T and ATV tuners and an articulated 7-inch LCD. We're guessing the "1080" in the product name is just a byproduct of the predecessor's "HFDL-1070" moniker and not a spec, but for what it's worth, the HFDL-1070 came in at 500 lines of resolution, so the new model will at least meet ED spec. More to the point, we seriously doubt you're going to notice a dramatic difference between HD and ED on a 7-inch display; and shouldn't executive types be focused on work while at their desks anyways?

Dream Multimedia unveils dual-tuner DM 8000 HD PVR in Europe

by Darren Murph, posted Jan 5th 2009 at 11:47AM


Not to be confused with the similarly named DM 800, the DM 8000 HD PVR is finally shipping overseas. The Dream Multimedia DVR comes with a 400MHz processor, MPEG-2 / H.264 decoding, an Ethernet jack, an OLED display, twin DVB-S2 tuners (DVB-C / DVB-T optional), a pair of SmartCard readers, S/PDIF audio output and all sorts of other ports. According to a local, the potent box is on sale now for €989 ($1,369), and just in case you're having trouble deciding if the inkling you're having is true: yes, that's absurdly expensive.

[Thanks, Rob]

KWorld's USB Lamborghini UB385-T tunes DVB-T really, really quickly

by Darren Murph, posted Dec 11th 2008 at 1:52AM


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.

Four French national channels going HD over-the-air this month

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 27th 2008 at 4:16AM

Apparently all that's necessary to get a lagging country to hop on the high-def bandwagon is to talk bad about 'em, or at least that's the case here with France. After we heard that the nation wasn't exactly rushing out to adopt HD, in comes word that four major French channels will soon be available in high-definition on digital terrestrial TV (DTT). TF1 HD, France 2 HD, M6 HD and Arte HD will all begin broadcasting OTA in HD on October 30th, and while all of these are already available on other platforms, we can only imagine that beaming 'em out gratis will greatly increase HD awareness. Any other nations want to follow suit? Oh, and France, way to be a role model out there.

Captive Works intros CW-4000HD Linux Media Center

by Darren Murph, posted Sep 18th 2008 at 11:41AM


Tired of those Windows-based media servers, are you? Enter Captive Works, which has just unleashed its Linux-based CW-4000HD. The all-black unit packs an AMD 4600 X2 CPU, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, a hard drive slot, NVIDIA's GeForce 7050 GPU, an optional ATSC tuner, HDMI / component / S-Video outputs, four USB 2.0 ports, a DVD burner and analog / digital audio outputs. It also comes bundled with software to handle PVR duties, P2P streaming, multimedia playback and pretty much anything else you'd expect a low-end HTPC to do. No mention of a price at the moment, but stay tuned on the read link if you're interested in (eventually) taking one home.

[Thanks, Aren]

Conceptronic intros Media Titan server / PVR for DVB-T nations

by Darren Murph, posted Sep 9th 2008 at 9:01AM

After a long summer of staying all but silent, Conceptronic is hitting back with an all new PVR / media player. The aptly-named Media Titan brings along optional 802.11n wireless support, twin hard drives, dual DVB-T tuners and support for more formats than you can shake a stick at. You'll also find a bundled remote, three USB ports for external storage, HDMI / Ethernet ports and UPnP AV compliance. Pricing remains a mystery for now, but citizens of Germany, Spain, Portugal and France can expect to find out later this month. Full release after the break.

[Thanks, KJ]

Continue reading Conceptronic intros Media Titan server / PVR for DVB-T nations

BBC's DVB-T2 Freeview HD trials deemed a success

by Darren Murph, posted Sep 6th 2008 at 7:15PM

We're not quite sure what this means for the immediate future of OTA programming in the UK, but we suppose a "huzzah!" is in order either way. Reportedly, those complicated DVB-T2 Freeview HD trials that were underway have been successful, with Auntie Beeb achieving the "world's first reception of HD pictures over DTT using DVB-T2." If you couldn't guess, DVB-T2 is a successor to the existing DVB-T broadcasting protocol which provides additional bandwidth and more swagger to TV signals. In theory, the switch to DVB-T2 (in conjunction with the move to MPEG-4 from MPEG-2) will enable more high-def content to be available in the UK. Of course, when we say "more," we basically mean "any" -- estimates assert that just three HD stations will be available OTA in the UK by 2009, one of which will be owned by the BBC and the other two by ITV, Channel 4 or Five.




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