other hardware
Latest
Toshiba applies for BDA admission, Blu-ray players and laptops coming soon
We'd already heard that Toshiba -- the outfit best known for solidly backing HD DVD during the two-year format war of the early 21st century -- was preparing to swallow its pride and kick out a Blu-ray player by the year's end, but now it's official. The outfit just announced moments ago that it has "applied for membership of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) and plans to introduce products that support the Blu-ray format." Sadly, Tosh doesn't bother to mention exactly what kinds of BD-capable wares it hopes to produce, nor is it ready to disclose product launch time frames. We'd tell you exactly how it wants us to just be patient and all, but you're probably better off hearing it directly from the horse's trap:"In light of recent growth in digital devices supporting the Blu-ray format, combined with market demand from consumers and retailers alike, Toshiba has decided to join the BDA. Toshiba aims to introduce digital products that support the Blu-ray format, including BD players and notebook PCs integrating BD drives, in the course of this year. Details of the products, including the timing of regional launches, are now under consideration. We will make announcements in due course."
Atlona AT-HD530 Down-Converter, for those who walked uphill to school, both ways
From the "three steps forward, two steps back" category comes Atlona's AT-HD530 Down-Converter. Send in a signal on one of those newfangled HDMI or DVI connections, and through the magic of fuzz-inducing signal-smashing you'll be able to grab output as either S-Video or composite. That's right, for just $299 you can kneecap your new gear and drag it back into the 80s. Obviously this is aimed at custom installers with clients demanding that their old and new gear play together, but with S-Video falling by the wayside on many new AVRs, it might gain a few more users. The custom installers get a pass, but for everyone else we'd suggest that your need for a AT-HD530 is a sign that it's time to upgrade.
Harman Specialty Group shows off new gear to bust your wallet
When most people with sub-seven figure incomes hear "Harman," they think "Kardon." High-enders with more... advantageous... economic situations might think of names like Mark Levinson, Revel and Lexicon. For them, the Harman Specialty Group is rolling out some appropriately over-the-top gear to go along with the Lexicon BD-30 Blu-ray deck. The Mark Levinson No. 500H-series amplifiers continue with the familiar tower design, but tout new circuit topology -- we're assuming Class H -- into the various multichannel models, with the top-dog 535H punching out 1,000-Watts. On the speaker side of the house, Revel is bringing the Ultima Rhythm2 and Performa B150 powered subwoofers to the party. Revel considerately throws in amplifiers (2,400-Watts for the Ultima and 1,200 for the Performa) rather than forcing you to pick up another Mark Levinson amp. Pricing undetermined, but you can look to other offerings from these brands for suitably stratospheric guidance.
Digital Cowboy's DC-MCNP1 2.5-inch NAS doubles as media player
It's a little hard to believe that we've gone two whole months without a new device from Digital Cowboy, but at long last, the Japanese wrangler is hitting back with a striking new piece of consumer electronics goodness. The DC-MCNP1, which falls neatly into the Movie Cowboy family, is a 2.5-inch NAS drive at heart, but aside from giving you access to files on its diminutive internal drive anywhere in the world, it also streams a plethora of file formats to your HDTV. The HDMI / composite video outputs should take care of the vast majority of ya, and the USB 2.0 socket provides an expansion option for those needing to hook up an external HDD. An Ethernet port is built in for network access, but those who'd prefer to cut the cord can certainly plug a wireless adapter into that USB socket and pray continuously to the signal gods above. If you find yourself in Fukuoka next month, give this one a look if you've got ¥19,900 ($209) to spare.
HomePlug fires back with powerline IEEE P1901 Draft Standard adoption
Highly variable real-world performance aside, the lack of a well-defined standard for powerline networking isn't helping the technology take off; but sticking consumers between the warring G.hn and HomePlug AV factions doesn't help anybody. In the latest round of the fight, the IEEE P1901 reached Draft Standard acceptance, and -- wouldn't you know it -- the onus of coming up with compliance and interoperability testing for products will fall upon the HomePlug Powerline Alliance. Just to raise the stakes, the Draft Standard is aiming for backward compatibility with existing devices. Sounds like herding cats to us, but with finalization of the Standard slated for 2010, it looks like things are going to heat up in the coming months.
Engadget HD's recession antidote: win a Netgear MoCA Coax-Ethernet adapter
This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget HD didn't want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back -- so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. Up for grabs today is the Netgear MoCA Coax-Ethernet adapter, which makes it easy to setup an high speed network anywhere you already have coax cable run. Best of all it does it without interfering with your cable TV. Read the rules below (no skimming -- we're omniscient and can tell when you've skimmed) and get commenting! Hooray for free stuff! Big thanks to Netgear for providing the cheer!The rules: Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for "fixing" the world economy, that'd be sweet too. You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.) If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine. Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad. Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) Netgear MoCA Coax-Ethernet adapter. Approximate value is $200. If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Entries can be submitted until July, 29th, at 11:59PM ET. Good luck! Full rules can be found here.
Engadget HD's recession antidote: win a ZVOX 325 soundbar
This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget HD didn't want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back -- so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. Today we've got a ZVOX 325 soundbar up for grabs. Coming right from the middle of ZVOX's lineup, the 325 will pump out a surprising amount of sound, so it's good for either a "secondary" system or a smaller/streamlined living room. Read the rules below (no skimming -- we're omniscient and can tell when you've skimmed) and get commenting! Hooray for free stuff! Big thanks to ZVOX for providing the cheer!The rules: Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for "fixing" the world economy, that'd be sweet too. You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.) If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine. Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad. Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) ZVOX 325 soundbar. Approximate value is $300. If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Entries can be submitted until July, 28th, at 11:59PM ET. Good luck! Full rules can be found here.
Onkyo keeps the SACD fires burning
Sure, Blu-ray has its Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA formats to satisfy the audiophiles, but Onkyo has apparently decided that there are still enough US audiophiles to warrant the release of gear previously labeled "Japan-only." With Wolfson DACs and a thermally regulated data clock circuit (you know, to tame those nasty jitters), the $599 C-S5VL SACD deck is ready to tackle your small but irreplaceable library of discs. Pair it up with the $699 A-5VL integrated amp and transport yourself back to a time when you didn't worry about specs -- 40-Watts across two channels, Burr-Brown DACs, and a low-noise preamplifier section should make for a killer small room/office system; and if you're anything close to mainstream, a small room or office is exactly where music listening has been pushed to. Grab the "sweet spot" chair and indulge!
Engadget HD's recession antidote: win an OmniMount Power55 motorized TV wall-mount
This whole global economic crisis, and its resulting massive loss of jobs got us thinking. We here at Engadget HD didn't want to stand helplessly by, announcing every new round of misery without giving anything back -- so we decided to take the opportunity to spread a little positivity. Today we've got an OmniMount Power55 motorized TV wall-mount that will take your couch-potato ways to a whole new level. Think motorized TV mounts are totally unnecessary? Check out the video of the remote controllable tilt, pan and swivel control, and then see what you think! Read the rules below (no skimming -- we're omniscient and can tell when you've skimmed) and get commenting! Hooray for free stuff! Big thanks to OmniMount for providing the gear!The rules: Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share your proposal for "fixing" the world economy, that'd be sweet too. You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.) If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine. Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad. Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one (1) OmniMount Power55 TV wall mount. Approximate value is $600. If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Entries can be submitted until July, 23rd, at 11:59PM ET. Good luck! Full rules can be found here.
Krell recalls select amplifiers to cool off the sound
Deep-pocketed audiophiles sporting Krell gear in their equipment racks love to gloat about the sound pouring from their amplifiers biased towards Class A, but that sonic bliss comes with a huge thermal pricetag. So much so, that Krell has issued a recall for its KAV-250a, KAV-250a/3, KAV-500i and KAV-1500 amps due to overheating concerns. For their trouble, affected owners will get certification of a fuse replacement and a $100 check. Mere mortals like us who aren't in the Krell club might chortle about money and sense, but on the other hand, we can't remember the last time our more mass-market receivers were ever offered this kind of service -- and some of them have run awfully hot; we're looking at you, Onkyo.
3D, ARC and Ethernet capable HDMI 1.4 hardware announced, still a long way off
The new HDMI 1.4 spec adds a host of new features (and, most likely, a lot of new ways to get scammed on cable purchases) but for those excitedly anticipating Audio Return Channel, HDMI Ethernet Channel and 3D over HDMI should know Silicon Image has announced its first line of chips supporting them. Destined for HDTVs, receivers, Blu-ray players and the like, the new port processor and transmitter have the extremely specific sample delivery date of "second half of 2009" so while we certainly don't expect to see any actual hardware until well into next year, keep an ear to the ground if you're considering an upgrade before then.
Olive blesses Opus No. 4 music server with 2TB of space, charges $1,799 for it
We haven't heard from Olive in a white hot minute, but hey, given the price of its wares, maybe it just decided to take the whole recession off. At any rate, the boutique outfit is sashaying back onto the scene with the Opus No. 4, the newest member of its long-standing Opus Hi-Fi Digital Stereo family. As with the models that have come before, this ultra high-end music server packs loads of internal storage (2TB if you're counting), giving you enough room for around 6,000 CDs stored in the lossless FLAC format. There's also a handy, full-color display on the front that probably won't get much use, and 'round back, you'll find a WiFi adapter (for wireless music streaming, you dig?), optical / coaxial digital audio outputs, a left / right analog output, a USB socket and an Ethernet port (for more of that streaming stuff). Look good? You bet. Does it look $1,799 good? That's debatable.
Xtreamer media streamer promoted with a video
Media streamers really are a dime a zone these days so it makes sense for them to just keep getting smaller and cheaper, while at the same time adding support for every codec and container known. The Xstreamer is the latest to hit the scene and is featured in this promotional video (after the jump) and looks pretty, pretty good. Of course we'd really like to experience the user interface first hand because while it seems these devices usually hit all the feature requirements on our check list, it is usually the user experience that is lacking. [Via eHomeUpgrade]
Samsung has a new Blu-ray HTIB with the HT-BD3252
Samsung's latest Blu-ray HTIB features just about anything an all-in-one customer could want; in fact we're not sure how you can even build a 5.1 system with rear wireless speakers and a Blu-ray player for $799. The HT-BD3252 of course supports the latest HD audio codecs like TrueHD and DTS-HD, and a mic for automatic calibration. Not wanting to leave anything out from its stand-alone players, Samsung has also included the same internet services like Pandora, Netflix and Blockbuster via the included WiFi dongle. Oh, and don't forget the very important iPod dock, we mean, who would buy a HTIB in this day and age without one? Not us, that's for sure.
Universal bringing BD-Live integration to the iPhone, irony to starving children
Although Apple still hasn't managed to achieve feature parity with any of its competitors by enabling Blu-ray playback in OS X, it looks like Universal's bringing the mountain to the Mac -- or at least the iPhone. At first, the upcoming special edition of Fast and Furious will feature integration with a special iPhone / iPod touch app that'll allow viewers to control 360-degree models of the cars in the "Virtual Car Garage," but later Universal releases will feature the ability to control movie playback, read annotations while watching your flick, and even download ancillary video content for later playback on the go. Sounds like pretty nifty stuff -- let's hope El Steve reconsiders his whole "bag of hurt" stance when he gets the demo.[Via AppleInsider]
Ultra-clean custom install leaves us ashamed of our rat's nest
As impressive as some custom installs look from the front-end, CEPro has photos of the back-end of a "masterpiece" setup that simply must be seen. If you think moving a set-top box to a remote location is excessive, you'll want to munch on some Xanax before hitting the link, because your head might a-splode. Sure, the ultra-wealthy can get the job done by cutting a nice big check, but you've got to respect this kind of fanatical attention to detail that someone mustered to both plan out and install by hand. Considering that the system has more than a dozen Crestron panels for HVAC, lighting, AV, security, water features and a train set (ultra-rich, remember?), you might even say that the effort was necessary for getting things up and running and keeping them that way.
Atlona HD-AiR wireless HDMI system hands-on and impressions
One of our ultimate dream gadgets has long been a dead-simple wireless HDMI dongle for our laptops -- something that would let us just throw a window (say, Hulu) up on our HDTV without a lot of fuss, cables, or configuration. So obviously we were pretty excited to try out the $199 Atlona Technologies HD-AiR, which marries Wireless USB with DisplayLink and promises to send 720p video directly from your laptop to a base station with VGA and HDMI outputs up to 30 feet away -- until we received the box and noted the small print saying that it doesn't support audio. Hopes: dashed.On top of that, we're not sure if it's DisplayLink, Wireless USB, or some combination of the two, but the video link seemed pretty bandwidth-starved -- full-screen video was close to unwatchable, PowerPoint transitions were kinda jerky, and even just moving windows around was pretty choppy. For such a promising -- and much-needed -- device, the HD-AiR just doesn't get it done. Atlona says the next version will have audio support and 1080p video support using the next generation of DisplayLink chips and drivers, but we'd hope the company's engineers spend a little more time in the lab polishing up their 720p framerates before they push this thing any farther. Video after the break.
SpeakerCraft bringing FancyPants UI gear to CEDIA
Last year's surreal SpeakerCraft booth at CEDIA definitely got people talking, but this year we're hoping that a new line of products from the company is what will be getting all the buzz. Press releases from Fluffy Spider Technologies and SpeakerCraft suggest that the conference will see the debut of SpeakerCraft media center products that use Fluffy Spider's FancyPants software for a UI with all the eye candy our 21st century selves demand. Sounds like a good match to us -- SpeakerCraft definitely has whole-home presence, and the development of a uniform control UI that's actually a pleasure to use is a definite "must have" feature. Both companies are keeping things pretty mum, however, so we'll have to wait to see what's brewing.Read - SpeakerCraft media center products coming to CEDIA Read - SpeakerCraft teams with FST Fancy Pants
LG's XF1 500GB multimedia hard drive touts HDMI, shimmery case
Looking for an external hard drive with a flashy color-shifting case, reasonably stout multimedia credentials, and a website with an outrageously long flash intro? Look no further than LG's XF1, a 500GB machine with a USB interface and HDMI output to stream some high-def content straight to your set -- but at a maximum of 1080i. It'll do AVI, Xvid, and MPEGs 1, 2, and 4 along with your typical audio codecs, but conspicuously absent on the video side are H.264 and MKV, meaning it's not exactly the comprehensive playback device you might be looking for if you haven't gotten around to standardizing your downloads to a single encoding. (Guilty.) In fact, it sounds almost exactly like Iomega's 500GB ScreenPlay in a slimmer, sexier case, and when it comes to perfecting your home theater does anything other than sexiness matter? Well... maybe price and availability, but sadly those are pieces of intel LG isn't sharing just yet.[Via Everything USB]
Hulu finally responds to PS3 blocking complaints
After weeks of silence, Hulu has provided some commentary on its blocking of PlayStation 3 and Windows Mobile browsers (unless you work out a way around it, of course), sending a form email back to any members the requested support for the issue that was heavy on "context" and light on answers. Without acknowledging that the company even is blocking these devices, the dispatch mentions "maximizing the content you can access as conveniently as possible in a way that "works" for the content owner." Of course that doesn't provide us any details as to which content provider(s) terms necessitated the change, or if, and in what form, we can expect easy off-PC access to Hulu's video streams to return but if you feel like navigating the fluff yourself, the letter is after the break.[Thanks, Connor]
