BrentEvans
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The Popcorn Hour C-200 media streamer makes its way into the wild
It looks like Popcorn Hour's C-200 media streamer is making its way into end-users' hands, so prepare yourself for a flurry of reviews. Our friend Brent over at GeekTonic should be jumping into the fray soon, and has kicked things off with a preview. Yeah, the C-200 is bigger than its sibling A-100, but it brings so much to the table that we'd say Popcorn Hour has packed in just as much -- if not more -- goodness per cubic inch. With space available for a hard and/or Blu-ray drive, wired and wireless networking, and USB ports to round out the input connectivity, the C-200 then adds a smorgasbord of codec support just to make sure your bits will survive the translation back into entertainment. With the "it plays anything" kind of capability the C-200 is promising, we've got a feeling that a positive review or two might be the only thing standing between us and a $300 dent in our credit cards. [Via ZatzNotFunny]
The ultimate guide to the Fall HDTV schedule
This is the best time of year for HD fans, not only are there more HD sports than anyone can possibly watch, but the new fall lineup of shows from the networks are already slowing starting to trickle out. The slow trickle is about to become a full blown blast in the next week or two though, and if you're like us you are using the modern marvel called a digital video recorder to hunt for the next Heroes or Lost. Now even those lucky enough to have a big ol' 1TB disk in their DVR, you will still have to do some leg work to see what's new. Maybe you'll go through who knows how many web pages, or use your TiVo's great guide search; but now thanks to our friend Brent Evans from Geek Tonic, there's a better way. He has done the leg work for us by comprising a very comprehensive chronological list of new shows -- including which are in HD of course -- which makes it super easy to record every new show under the sun in the search for the one new show that might actually earn some precious space or time.
Windows Media Center TV Pack was released yesterday
Wow, we didn't see this coming, at least not this fast -- just a week after getting a sneak peek at release candidate zero, our friend Brent Evans pointed us to a Microsoft knowledge base article that clearly states "The Windows Media Center TV Pack was released on July 16, 2008." Our sources are now confirming this and unfortunately the earlier leak that this would be an OEM only update seems to be true as the very next line in the KB says "Not all computers that are shipped by hardware vendors in the retail channel have the Windows Media Center TV Pack installed." What we really want to know though, is if we were able to did get our hands on the Windows Media Center TV Pack, could we just upgrade or would we have to re-install Windows? So while we can't wait to check out the new HD features, native QAM support, and heterogeneous tuner support, we can't say we're not disappointed. Read - MS KB955485Read - Geek Tonic
A first look at the Hauppauge HD-PVR
After a little bit of a delay the highly anticipated Hauppauge HD-PVR has finally gotten into user's hands and we're starting to get some first impressions. Our friend Brent Evans takes the time to write up his highs and lows with the new device. He is really happy with the picture quality -- despite the 2nd generation copy -- he loves having freedom to recording any source he wants in HD without worrying about DRM, but He isn't thrilled to pay the HD STB rental fees to the cable company, he's not a fan of the Ir blaster and says that setup could be easier. Overall he seems very pleased, but does point out that not everyone is so lucky, as many Hauppauge HD-PVR owners have apparently been experiencing over heating issues and can't use the device at all. Hauppauge is evidentially aware of the problem and believes it may be addressable in a firmware update, but nonetheless it is issuing some RMAs.
