Recently in Home Entertainment Category

HDMI was limited to roughly 6 meters or 20 feet, which limited your home entertainment hookups. Who keeps all their home entertainment equipment just 20 feet away? This is especially true if you have multiple rooms and you want to share HDMI components across multiple rooms or floors.

Well, a solution to this problem just launched today. Tributaries Cable, provider of high-performance cables, accessories, and installation solutions for audio, video, and custom-install systems has come out with the HXC5 HDMI over Cat5 system. It uses Cat5 network cabling - yes the same network cabling you use for your home network - to transmit the HDMI signal up to a whopping 50m. This is truly a momentous problem solver for many modern home theater systems. It even uses the same standard RJ45 connector and pin outs, so you can crimp your own network cable rather than paying for an expensive crimped network cable.

The Tributaries HXC5 provides a simple solution for sending an HDMI signal over distances up to 50 meters (164ft) virtually loss-free. The HXC5 requires a double-run of low-cost, flexible, easy-to-run standard CAT5/5E/6 network cabling. The HXC5 employs balanced/unbalanced signal processing ensuring full hi-def signal integrity for all video formats up to and including 1080p, and is HDMI v1.2-and HDCP compliant. The HXC5 is packaged as a complete, ready-to-connect system, including a compact “balun” transmitter (source-end) and receiver (destination-end), each measuring 5”x5”x1”, and two 5-volt power supplies. Installation is as simple as plugging and playing.

Tributaries latest high-def video solution is now available and it'll set you back $600. A bit hefty, but  certainly a worthy sacrifice that home entertainment/videophiles are certainly willing to pay in order to save every precious and beauteous high-definition video bit.

AT&T U-verse customers have been complaining about lack of DVR (Digital Video Recorder) support that works throughput the home. Sure, you can get a single DVR box, but you can't view the recorded (or paused) content in the rest of the house. Part of AT&T's promise with U-verse was that you could watch digitally recorded content stored on a single DVR on any TV in the home. Sadly, this hasn't been the case, but from what I hear they're working on it. You could of course buy or rent a DVR in each room, but that is cost-prohibitive for most, and makes managing your recorded TV shows a nightmare!

Fortunately, there is a DIY workaround that will enable you to view your centralized DVR content (as well as pause rewind/fast-forward live TV) by using a combination of RF coax splitters, IR (Infrared) repeaters, coax balun, Cat5 - RJ11 cable, and more - all using a single DVR set top box.

Essentially, you set your DVR STB (set top box) to SD mode which will allow the STB to output an RF Signal which can then be picked up by other STBs simply by switching to CH (channel) mode. What you've essentially done is output the DVR's signal over RF analog and then switched the remote STB from viewing AT&T's digital channels to viewing the analog channels. See? - sometimes analog TV signals come in handy!  It's too bad Congress mandated that analog TV be completely phased out by 2009. (I'm kidding, all digital will be a good thing)

For the full DIY explanation of how to DVR-enable your entire home with a single DVR - including a diagram - go check out TheDigitalVault.

Skype and Logitech have teamed up to offer high quality videoconferencing. Skype 3.6 will be required and will increase the resolution from 320 x 240 to 640 x 480 (VGA). High Quality Video will also require Logitech QuickCam software, version 11.5. It will support up to 30 frames per second (fps) to people using a broadband connection. 384 kbps connection or higher is required and a PC with a dual-core processor to do the heavy processing of the video stream.

High Quality Video on Skype is available with the following premium Logitech webcams: the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000, the Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks and the Logitech QuickCam® Orbit AF (Logitech® QuickCam® Sphere AF in Europe).

According to the release, all three High Quality Video-certified webcams offer a Carl Zeiss lens and a very cool autofocus. Logitech’s autofocus system refocuses images in less than three seconds and helps ensure that images remain crisp even in extreme close-ups (up to 4 inches/10 cm from the camera lens).

For the office and the home, the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 comes with a flexible universal base, which allows it to rest comfortably on nearly any monitor. For the on-the-go professional, the Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks is sold with a protective travel case and an adjustable, spring-tension clip that accommodates even large laptops with panels up to 20 mm thick. The QuickCam Orbit AF webcam can cover 190 horizontal degrees and 100 vertical degrees of a room and offers a unique pan-and-tilt tracking technology.

So can Skype crack the high-end videoconferencing market? Should Microsoft Roundtable be worried or Polycom with their dedicated videoconferencing hardware? I'm not holding my breath. I still think hardware videoconferencing solutions are the way to go for businesses. Maybe SMBs that can't afford high-end video hardware might use Skype.

I'm against censorship in all its forms, so I was shocked to learn that Disney, specifically Radio Disney is censoring the word God from its advertising promotions of their soon-to-be-(today) released movie, The Ten Commandments. Disney has always been about good, wholesome, family fun. Heck, their first PG-13 rated movie wasn't until Black Cauldron in 1985. I guess God must not be wholesome enough to qualify as "Disney family-friendly."



 "Our BS&P [Broadcast Standards and Procedures] said Both scripts need to include the studio mention and omit the following line: CHOSEN BY GOD.... Please let me know if you have any questions," reads the e-mail, sent Oct. 2 to Promenade media buyer Casey Baker by Radio Disney Network sales associate Jason Atkinson.

Disney is obviously going after the Jewish and Christian audience with this film, but way to tick em' off with this controversy. The entire film is filled with mentions of the word God. Imagine if the Passion of the Christ was advertised without mentioning the word 'Jesus'. Or if a film promoting World War II didn't mention the Germans, Italians or the Japanese for fear of offending German, Italian, or Japanese Americans. How politically correct have we become that we can't "offend" anybody? Well, I find this 'seemingly' politically correct censorship offensive.

According to Fox News, "Liberty Counsel, a religious issues litigation and Christian advocacy group, has petitioned Radio Disney to reconsider its requirement that "God" be chucked from the spots for the movie."

"It's highly offensive that the family-friendly company Disney portrays itself to be would actually eliminate God from an ad about 'The Ten Commandments,'" said Liberty Counsel's founder and chairman Mathew D. Staver. "How ridiculous can you be? I'm asking Radio Disney to use some common sense and stop censoring this ad."

You can listen to the original and the uncensored version here, along with a petition to have God put back into the ads.

SIM2 just released the Grand Cinema C3X 1080p Projector. I don't know whether to project this thing or drive it - damn thing looks like a cheery red Ferrari. SIM2's Next Generation Grand Cinema C3X 1080 3-Chip DLP is one of the first to utilize Texas Instruments DLP Product's latest DarkChip chip to integrate superior contrast plus benchmark-quality 1080p video display with the functions and features required to power today's sophisticated home theaters, all within the dramatic industrial design for which SIM2 is justly famous. It delivers astonishing performance from its compact design.

SIM2's new Grand Cinema HT30000 HOST system pairs a surprisingly compact projector showcasing the stunning cabinet designs for which the company is famous, with a discrete outboard video input processor that connects via SIM2's proprietary, three-line optical-digital High-Definition Optical Signal Transfer (H.O.S.T.) system, which is able to link the two over distances up to 750 feet (250m).

It includes 2 x HDMI-HDCP compliant digital inputs, one S-Video input, one composite video, one RGBS-YCrCb (RCA) input, and one RGBHV input. It also sports a USB and RS232 connector for control and software upgrades. It also has digital audio output and an external IR sensor. It supports PAL, HDTV (480p, 820p, 1080i, 1080p) ad well as PC support for VGA, SVGA, XGA, SXGA, UXGA, and WUXGA. It supports all the popular aspect ratios, including 4:3, 16:9 anamorphic, Letterbox, Panoramic, and custom adjustments. It also comes in black, gold, and high-gloss Gun Metal, which reminds me of Halo Master Chief's armor color.



SIM2 brags, "This next-generation home theater projector is titally unique to SIM2 - no other manufactuer has the ability to produce a high performance 3-chip projector with such compact dimensions, which is why SIM2 has taken out five separate patents for this product alone. The Grand Cinema c3X 1080 is without a doubt a true thoroughbred, offering unprecedented picture quality for the discerning home theater customer".

The C3X 1080 utilizes true 10-bit video processing to create clean, artefact-free video images. 10-bits-per-channel processing produces 1024 shades of grey (or shades of a single color) resulting in the ability to render over 1 billion colors on-screen. It's also Full HD 1080p capable, including 1080p@24fpbs. It also features 10,000:1 contrast ration and it has a choice of three lens options: T1 (short throw) 1.3-1.7:1, T2 (long-throw - standard) 1.7-2.6:1, and T3 (long-throw) 2.6-3.5:1 (avail Q1 2008).

Sweet projector. Maybe now I can finally ditch my bulky 65" rear projection TV and get me one of these. Of course, it retails for $29,995, so maybe not.

Toshiba announced their gigashot A and K video camcorders. The gigashot A100F features a 1.8-inch shock-resistant 100GB disk with 1/3-inch CMOS sensor. It features full HD video (1,920 x 1,080 or 1080i) recordings at 60fps with 16bit/48kHz Dolby digital stereo audio.

It uses high-quality MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video and will give you about 12 hours of video recording at the highest quality setting and around 23 hours in standard mode. You can also take 2 megapixel still photos.

Both the gigashot A and K series feature SDHC expansion, 3-inch LCD, 10x optical zoom, HDMI mini and component out, and USB for PC connectivity.


Toshiba brags that its 78.1 x 135.4 x 79.0-mm measurements make it the world's smallest "Full HD" camcorder with a built-in hard disk drive. The lower-end gigashot K series does slightly lower video resolution - 1280x720 or 720p video and 0.92 megapixel photos in its slightly smaller 80GB or much smaller 40GB hard disk options.

The top of the line gigashot A100F ships in mid November for ¥188,000 (about $1,632). The smaller HDD version, the gigashot A40F comes with a 40GB HDD and you can buy one for ¥158,000 (about $1372). For the K-series, the gigashot K80H will run ya 128,000 yen (about $1111) and the lowest end model, the gigashot K40H (40GB) will cost you ¥108,000 (about $938).

The new gigashot camcorders start shipping in late October. Whether these camcorders will make it to the U.S. in time for the Christmas buying season is another story and with the dollar tanking, these Japanese imported camcorders will only go up in price.

Just last week, I wrote about how pjsip's open source embedded SIP stack and media stack (written in C) was used to power VoIP on the Nintendo DS using the SvSIP client. Well, the pjsip blog now has a post including a Youtube video that shows how it's done. I'll include the video embedded here as well, but go check out the post since it includes overall impressions of the "VoIP on Nintendo DS experience"!

Microsoft quietly released a security update to the XBox 360 that closed a security hole that enabled hackers to load Linux onto the XBox 360. Essentially, the hack used a method to inject data into non-privileged memory areas, allowing a hacker with physical access to an Xbox 360 to run arbitrary code such as alternative operating systems with full privileges and full hardware access. Sorry Linux fans, Microsoft closed this security hole.

No Linux for you!

Sony must be reading my blog, since just last week I suggested Sony take on Apple by offering a universal multi-media device that does gaming, mobile calling, video playback, MP3 music, and GPS navigation. I jokingingly called this hypothetical Sony device the Sony PlayStation Multimedia Video GPS Phone - or Sony PSMVGP for short. I knew Sony would be the perfect company to take on Apple and especially that juggernaut known as the Apple iPhone, when I said, "Sony, an expert in electronics, TV screens, and gaming, is the perfect company to take on the Apple iPhone."

I explained last week, "Sony If Sony were smart, they'd come out with a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) with built-in GPS, GSM cellular service, and wireless Internet functionality. This hypothetical device would blow away the Apple iPhone. It would offer awesome 3D gaming, cell phone functionality, Internet/email access, video playback, and GPS navigation. The device would have everything you need for long trips with the kids. They can play videogames, watch videos, or access the Internet. What more do you need? Sony, an expert in electronics, TV screens, and gaming, is the perfect company to take on the Apple iPhone."

Just a few days later Sony launched the Sony Walkman NWZ-A801 and NWZ-S610, which were obviously targeting the Apple iPod MP3/video player. Once again, I tried to prod Sony into launching my "ultimate converged gadget" when I wrote, "These two new series combo audio/video portable players are a great start for Sony. But I'm still waiting for Sony to create the Sony PlayStation Portable Multimedia Video GPS Phone or Sony PSMVGP for short. It would combine a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) with built-in GPS, GSM cellular service, and wireless Internet functionality. Then life would be good. "

Well, today there is a big story in the Wall Street Journal saying, "Sony Corp., Chief Executive Howard Stringer is quietly preparing a big move to expand the company and challenge rival Apple..." The article goes on to say, "People familiar with the situation say Mr. Stringer is planning to use Sony's technology-packed PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable videogame machines, along with its Bravia high-definition televisions, to develop products and services to let users download television shows and movies, similar to the way they download music and videos using Apple's iTunes store and iPods."

I'll be damned if that quote isn't nearly identical to what I was saying last week. Of course, there is no mention of GPS navigation or mobile phone functionality, but I wouldn't be surprised if through the Sony Ericsson relationship they developed a mobile phone with high-end multimedia and GPS functionality.

What is very interesting is that in addition to the news today that "Sony is going to take on Apple" is that Sony Ericsson President Miles Flint today announced he was stepping down to be replaced by Dick Komiyama, current chairman of the board at Sony Electronics, USA. Replaced by someone at Sony Electronics? Could something be afoot? This is a very interesting restructuring. Could Sony be looking to leverage their expertise in electronics and home entertainment and bring it to their Sony Ericsson mobile phone division? While my prophetic words from last week were somewhat of an obvious prediction, my timing was certainly impeccable!