- Published:
- January 12, 2012 – 11:18 pm
- Author:
- By Dave
After I ditched cable TV, I used both Snapstream’s BeyondTV and SageTV to sate my and my family’s television needs. After almost 2 years we ended up turning cable back on. Win one for the cable company!
But that did not end my search for the perfect home television system. Our cable box, well, works; but the hard drive is limited and you have to pay 15.99/mo for it.
For the full video demo… continue to the full post!
Categories: Gaming,Other Technology,Software,Television
Tagged: demo, htpc, Windows Media Center, Windows Media Center Extender, xbox, xbox 360
- Published:
- September 24, 2011 – 8:20 am
- Author:
- By Dave
First, a bit of history. Cable TV started in the 1970s when TV consumers just outside the range of commercial Over The Air (OTA) broadcasts banded together to create community “Cable” TV systems. An antenna was posted at a high spot on a mountain and pulled in signals that were out of range for households, then retransmitted those signals to subscribers. At the time, there was a fight by the commercial television stations to protect their content, but eventually the cable systems won out, and eventually evolved to be the mega-cable companies you see today. In fact, today cable companies and content companies are one-in-the-same. Fast forward to today. Wouldn’t it be great if there was an internet television station that would take OTA broadcast signals and retransmit them over the internet to households that couldn’t receive that signal? Well, there is and its name is ivi.tv. The user experience….
Categories: Other Technology,Television
Tagged: ivi.tv, live streaming television, live tv, streaming video
- Published:
- May 20, 2010 – 1:59 pm
- Author:
- By Dave
Just watched the Google IO stream regarding the release of Google TV. My thoughts: Good: The platform is open. This is the way to go, and will allow developers to go hog wild and develop things that even the Google engineers couldn’t envision. TV/Web Integration. The Google TV platform appears to have great web and video integration, including live TV. The overlays look beautiful and web/TV switches effortlessly. But that basically makes it WebTV. Working with hardware partners. This gives the platform a much better chance of seeing the light of day. It appears they are working with Sony, Dish, Logitech and other hardware companies. The Android market. Integration with this means you already have tons of apps at your disposal on your system. Search integration. Will make it easy to find both local and online content. Bad: Needing an existing cablebox to bring in live TV. This is an….
Categories: Other Technology,Television
Tagged: google tv, googletv, htpc, iptv, Television
- Published:
- February 19, 2010 – 10:55 pm
- Author:
- By Dave
HBO GO has been in the works for a while now, and is an indication of what some networks are trying to do to add value to their subscription rate. Offering video for streaming online is definitely a benefit to a premium channel like HBO. And it is a glimpse as to what the future of online video will hold. I recently got rid of my cable box and implemented a do-it-yourself solution. Since HBO is a premium channel and encrypted, they force you to either buy a cable box via subscription or also a cable-card (which they also charge for). This actually gives me a unique perspective on the service: would I pay for HBO to receive the HBO GO online only offering?
Categories: Reviews,Software,Television
Tagged: newmedia, review, Television
- Published:
- January 21, 2010 – 1:17 pm
- Author:
- By Dave
Gone is my 500+ channel television subscription along with the required boxes necessary to decode all of that content. The DVR, which has been a mainstay of my family’s television viewing habits, has been ousted. In it’s place is a kick-ass system that keeps the DVR functionality for many of the TV shows that we usually watch, brings in much new content, and also saves me a few bucks each month.
Let’s face it, you don’t want all of the content that your cable provider offers. Cable providers have fought a-la-carte programming tooth and nail for this very reason. Much of it is specialty programming, and though I admit it is nice to know it was there, my family and I rarely watched any of it. My new setup brings many new sources as well as a CHOICE to what you want to view. I am very happy with the results so far.
Categories: Hardware,Other Technology,Reviews,Software,Television
Tagged: acer-revo, boxee, cable, home-theater, htpc
- Published:
- December 27, 2009 – 12:16 am
- Author:
- By Dave
I’ve decided to replace my cable plan and DVR box with something a little more… functional. Sure we get a ton of channels from Verizon FiOS, but we hardly ever watch them. Our television viewing habits mainly consist of a few programs that my wife watches and a few programs that I watch, but we almost never watch them live. We typically DVR them and then watch them on our own time. For the few instances where we would like to watch live TV, for example when a Penn State game is on, we would like to be able to watch that. Normally the games are on ABC/NBC/Fox so premium cable channels such as ESPN aren’t necessarily needed. There will be some instances where a game may only be available on the Big 10 network or some other premium channel, but honestly I am not that big into sports and….
Categories: Hardware,Other Technology,Software,Television
Tagged: boxee, replace-cable, Television
- Published:
- August 20, 2008 – 9:48 pm
- Author:
- By Dave
We received this Blu-ray player along with a few Blu-Ray DVDs for an anniversary present. The BDP-S301 is the same as the BDP-S300 except it is only sold at wholesale outlets like Costco and Sam’s Club. The S301 also includes an HDMI cable. The Pros: The image looks great. Hands down it is a clean, crisp image, and with the latest firmware updates (click here) supports most audio configurations. The Cons: This thing is the slowest media player I have ever laid my hands on. The instructions warn that the initial setup could take 90 seconds to start and after that, start up would be quicker. I suppose they didn’t lie – start up on an everyday basis takes around 40 seconds or more! After that, you can finally eject the tray to insert your movie, or make your way to the menu. Forty seconds, when you have an impatient….
Categories: Hardware,Reviews,Security,Television
Tagged: bdp-s300, bdp-s301, blu-ray, bluray, movies, Reviews, sony
