Multimedia-PCs » HDTV

New HDTV Energy Star Standards

Jeremy Jones — Tue, 04 May 2010 16:18:43 +0000

The new energy star requirements 4.0 for HDTVs have dropped energy consumption by almost half on a 50″ set. These standards take effect on any set manufactured after May 1st 2010. The 3.0 specs mean that a 50″ HDTV could use 318 watts while 4.0 specs means a 50″ set can only use 153 watts. PC World has more numbers to compare too. Now HDTVs can still use more power but they won’t have the energy star logo on them. If you’re in the market for a new TV you should look at the energy star ratings. It means that the HDTV will cost less over the years. Plasma TVs are the ones that are going to be impacted more than they already have been. I’m not sure you can get a Plasma TV down to only 153 watts.

The New TiVo Premiere

Jeremy Jones — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:29:39 +0000

TiVo after many years has updated it’s TiVo to Series 4. There are going to be two version, a base and a THX XL model. The base to have 320GB hard drive and the XL to have a 1TB drive. The UI had a refresh and is now featured in HD. I won’t pretend to know a lot about TiVo as I have never really liked their offerings. Some swear by them though. Since I’m not competely familiar with TiVO I’ll leave the TiVo news to Dave Zatz of ZatzNotFunny. His review of the new Premiere unit is a great read with a lot of information.

But where’s the improved whole-home DVR experience (like Moxi), additional tuners, Blu-ray player, social media apps (like FiOS), DLNA, user personalization (like Sezmi), etc?

The new TiVo Premiere looks nice but after reading over Dave’s post I still think Moxi is your best bet.

Details about the new DirecTV H24-100

Jeremy Jones — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 15:25:31 +0000

DBSTalk has details on the new DirecTV H24-100. There are a few key features to this receiver has that their current lineup doesn’t. The receiver is only HD, not a DVR, but it has multi-room viewing capabilities. If you have HD DVRs in your house it can pull those recordings. You can read my review on multi-room viewing here. The receiver also has DECA built-in. DECA allows you to send internet over the coax line to the receiver. For houses that don’t have ethernet ran all over this is huge. In order to enjoy multi-room viewing, media streaming and apps these receivers need Internet. The last big improvement is speed. If you have used their current HD DVRs scrolling through the guide can be slow. DBSTalk says the H24 can scroll just as fast as you can click the button. That’s probably because it doesn’t have a hard drive spinning to slow down the data.

I’m not sure when launch is but it should be soon. I’ll probably have to order one to replace my bedroom SD box. The multi-room viewing is seller for me.

Control FiOS TV From Your Droid or Imagio

Jeremy Jones — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:59:10 +0000

Verizon has released a remote control app for the Droid and Imagio. It acts as a TV remote allowing you to change channels, record, pause and anything else your remote can do. It does all that over wireless in your home. Another really cool feature is that it will allow you to stream pictures from your Droid to the TV wirelessly. While Droid and Imagio are the only two cellphones supported they say more will be included in the next few months. Video overview below.

Verizon Forums

XStreamHD Up for Pre-Order

Jeremy Jones — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:07:05 +0000

The XStreamHD is up for pre-order. It only takes $25 and you have to live in the U.S. I think the XStreamHD has some cool new features and it could be useful. The problem I have is price and an additional satellite dish. It will be interesting to see some reviews when they start shipping.

(via TheDigitalLifestyle)

Review: DirecTV Multi-Room Viewing

Jeremy Jones — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:49:19 +0000

DirecTV announced multi-room viewing a little over a month ago. I finally got around to setting it up and putting it through it’s paces. Like I said before the service is only in beta. DirecTV is not supporting the service right now so don’t call about it if you have trouble. The service is also free right now but they plan on charging later on, probably once it leaves beta.

What you need:
You need to have more than one HD-DVR. You also need them connected to your home network.

Setup:
Setup of multi-room viewing is fairly simple, as long as you already have it wired into the network. I’m going to assume you already have network connections. To get multi-room viewing going you need to “Menu” and navigate down to “Parental, Fav’s & Setup”. When the next set of options come up go to “System Setup”. You will now see “Multi-Room” on the left side menu. You will now see “Name Location” and “Beta”. You need to go into “Beta” and opt-in to the service. It explains that the service is free right now. After that you can name the DVR. You need to do this on both DVRs. After that the DVRs should be able to connect to each other.

Usage:
When you go to your recording list all recording from both DVRs show up in one big list. There isn’t an option to share just certain shows or really any way to organize them by DVR. One option that you do have in the setup is to say weather you want to allow deletion on remote DVR. Allowing for remote deletion is nice but it needs to tell you how much storage you have left on each location. For instance, if I’m in the living room looking at recordings from both locations, it only gives me remaining storage on that DVR. I would have to walk down to the basement to see how much storage that DVR has. I know it’s only in beta so features like that could be added.

Playback from the remote DVR is flawless even in HD. There is a slight delay when starting a remote recording but that is normal while it queues up from the network, only a few seconds. I tried a few different scenarios to try make things not work. I tried recording a HD show on the remote DVR in the basement while streaming to the upstairs DVR. I didn’t have issues no matter what I tried. My DVRs are hard wired into a gig switch so if you are using wireless your results may vary.

Pros:
* Easy to setup
* Easy to use
* Delete recordings on remote side
* Playback in HD is great

Cons:
* Service will cost at a later date
* Doesn’t show free space on remote DVR

Conclusion:
Multi-room viewing is on the wanted list for anyone that has multiple DVRs. Even with the DirecTVs multi-room viewing in beta, it works well and was easy to setup. DirecTV wanting to charge for this service is the biggest problem. They raised fees for equipment, HD and DVR service it is hard to justify another charge that you have to opt into. But the time for DirecTV to charge isn’t here yet and they might change their mind. If you have multiple DirecTV HD-DVRs I would recommend setting this up.

Netflix Streaming 1080p Later This Year

Jeremy Jones — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:02:45 +0000

It’s being reported that Netflix will start streaming 1080p content with 5.1 surround sound later this year. This will be good news if you have the setup to take advantage of it. The current line of Roku boxes won’t be capable of streaming at 1080p. I’m sure most Blu-ray players will be able to take advantage of it. The biggest issue will be bandwidth. Currently you need around 5MBs for streaming 720p. That’s what Netflix says. I generally test at 7MBs and the Roku boxes rarely can keep a HD stream. My Blu-ray player does a lot better job and I rarely drop quality mid show. I’m guessing that’s because the Blu-ray player has more memory for a larger buffer. So if I need 7MBs for 720p, I would need 15MBs for 1080p. That’s a lot of bandwidth that people don’t have, unless you’re running FiOS or plan on streaming while everyone is at work.

With that being said I have no idea how Netflix is going to package the content to deliver. We will have to wait until later this year to see how well it works.

Build Your Own Ambilight TV

Jeremy Jones — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 19:30:32 +0000

This is a really cool project that creates a Phillips Ambilight TV with a few LED bars. It’s a plug-and-play system that uses the a HTPC to control the LEDs. Complete directions over at fun3′s blog. This might be a project I have to play around with.

(via hackaday)

DirecTV is Launching a 3D Channel Next Year

Jeremy Jones — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 15:28:31 +0000

DirecTV will be launching a 3D channel next year. They will make the announcement at CES this year. This goes along with their new satellite launch last night that will bring over 200 HD channels and HD locals in more markets. 3D doesn’t really get me excited but I love to see a company I subscribe to keep moving forward. Now what about getting me multi-room viewing?

More at HDGURU

Plasma TV “Burn-In”: Fact or Myth?

Jeremy Jones — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:41:17 +0000

HDGURU has a great write up on Plasma TV burn-in. It’s always talked about that you have to be careful with Plasma TVs so you don’t burn the image in to the screen. I advise people on this too even with current TVs. HDGURU advises that ““Burn-in” is for all practical purposes a non-issue with current plasma HDTVs.” They go on to explain more of the technical details on why it’s not as important as it use to be. Plasma TVs are great and I have one at home but I would still take the steps to protect your TV. Plasma uses a lot of power and most at the store are in Vivid or in a sales display mode. That creates a very bright image that you really don’t need. By turning the Plasma to home mode or lowering the brightness you can save power and also help eliminate burn-in. (A side note: I cut the power usage by 50% on my Plasma by turning down the brightness and I couldn’t tell a difference after I powered it off and back on.) Most set-tops and game consoles have burn-in protection by pixel shifting. That will help with the HUD at the bottom of the screen. It was also stated in the comments on HDGURU that the first few hundred hours are where you need to pay the most attention. The gas will be burning the brightest at that time.

Plasma TV prices have fallen sharply over the last 6 months which make them a great deal. Their picture is stunning and is extremely bright even on the lowest setting. I do agree that burn-in isn’t an issue like it use to be but I would still be smart about how you use it. The biggest problem with Plasma TVs is the energy usage. You should consider that when purchasing. Mine even on the lowest brightness uses more than twice the power as my LCD.

Multimedia-PCs » HDTV

New HDTV Energy Star Standards

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The New TiVo Premiere

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Details about the new DirecTV H24-100

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Control FiOS TV From Your Droid or Imagio

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XStreamHD Up for Pre-Order

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Review: DirecTV Multi-Room Viewing

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Netflix Streaming 1080p Later This Year

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Build Your Own Ambilight TV

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DirecTV is Launching a 3D Channel Next Year

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Plasma TV “Burn-In”: Fact or Myth?

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