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Okoro Media Systems adds Core 2 Extreme to OMS-GX300 HTPC
It looks like Okoro Media Systems' flagship HTPC is getting yet another upgrade, as this time the well-spec'd beast picks up a quad-core 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 processor and an HDCP-compliant NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX graphics card to compliment the rest of the luxuries you'll find here. Aside from the sleek, black chassis with built-in seven-inch touchscreen display, you'll also be graced with up to 4GB of Crucial Ballistix DDR2 RAM, twin dual-layer DVD burners (c'mon, where's the high definition?), DTS Connect / Dolby Digital Live, 1TB of SATA hard drive space, 9-in-1 flash card reader, dual TV tuners, and a range of OS choices including Vista Ultimate. As for the port assortment, you'll find FireWire, optical / digital audio, four USB 2.0 connectors, Ethernet, two DVI outputs, VGA / component / S-Video / composite outs, microphone in, and the obligatory OTA cable inputs. So while the OMS-GX300 probably includes everything you need for the quickest, most feature-packed media PC experience, all these niceties will run you somewhere between $4,595 and infinity, depending on your credit limit.[Via eHomeUpgrade]
Euro1080 to implement DTS HDTV over satellite
European satellite operator Euro1080 announced plans to implement DTS-encoded audio streams into their recently-launched MPEG-4 satellite feeds. Enabling the 5.1-channel audio format broadcast is tech from Coding Technologies, which will put the DTS signal inside the aacPlus feed that will be broadcast along with HDTV picture to Europeans who subscribe to Euro1080 satellite. New set-top boxes to decode the MPEG-4 content are also to be released by electronics manufacturers. American ATSC standards only allow for competitor Dolby Digital's multichannel audio to be encoded, but DTS audio can be found in standard and high-def DVDs
DTS licenses DTS HD Master Audio technology to ten IC producers
Although Dolby's TrueHD may be a more well-known moniker, it looks like you'll be hearing (quite literally) a lot more of DTS in the coming months. The firm has landed a deal with no less than ten integrated circuit (IC) manufacturers to incorporate its DTS HD Master Audio and / or DTS HD High Resolution Audio technology (not to mention the DTS HD LBR and encoder / transcoder jazz) into forthcoming chips. These microchips -- designed by Analog Devices, Broadcom, Cheertek, LSI, Matsushita, MediaTek, NEC, Renesas, Sigma Designs, and Sunplus Technology -- will contain DTS's high definition audio standards and will eventually find their way into next-generation HD DVD and Blu-ray players, AV receivers, and pre-packaged home theater systems. Additionally, the technology could even slither into the PC and automobile markets. While neither specific end products nor release dates were mentioned, we do know that devices coming out "in 2007" will be sporting the new protocols, and hey, we've got no qualms when it comes to options in audio (or video).
Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray player firmware update available
Early adopting Blu-ray owners can now download, burn to disc, and install a patch for some of the issues that have plagued the Samsung BD-P1000 since its release -- but the "noise reduction" bug affecting picture quality is not one of them, yet. The firmware update 1.0 doesn't say exactly what it fixes, but the list of upgrades found so far is as follows: Fixes stuttering audio/video while viewing movies with DTS soundtracks Adds pillarboxing to 4:3 content on Blu-ray discs (instead of stretching it to widescreen), Improved load times Hourglass icon changed to colored dots Fixes reversed analog outs on affected players Adds DTS decoding for DVD content (like AVIA test disc) Of course, if you're on the list Samsung will simply send a disc for you to put in the player and upgrade, but why wait? Another release to fix the annoying noise reduction issue is expected "soon".[Via AVS Forum & Home Theater Blog, thanks for the tip Dave!]
MGM announces 4th-quarter Blu-ray releases
MGM, now under the arm of Fox and not Sony -- although they are following Sony and releasing these discs with MPEG-2 instead of MPEG-4 AVC -- has announced their next two waves of Blu-ray releases, also targeted towards early adopters and Playstation 3 owners. Usual Supects (day-and-date with the special edition DVD) and Windtalkers are slated for November 28, followed by Rocky (day-and-date with the special edition DVD) and Bulletproof Monk. What they do share with Fox's 8 movie releases is a $39.98 MSRP, which we should remind you is higher than we expect the discs to actually retail for but in this case, more than we expect due to their being catalog releases without exclusive features to speak of. They are all HDMV mastered with DTS HD Master Lossless soundtracks and "pop-up" menus. The BDA wasn't joking when they said they would have big announcements today, they are keying their strategy this fall around the Playstation 3 but we'll be happy if they can provide the quality movies we've been waiting for from Blu-ray.
Blueado's m5e "Sport Edition" HTPC
If you liked the Mac mini-inspired Blueado m5e home theater PC, then you're gonna love a recently-released, improved version of the machine that the company is touting as a "Sport Edition" (because, you know, nothing invokes athleticism like sitting around watching TV and movies all day), which adds several compelling features (and $500) to its $1,500 sibling. Packing in the same 2.0GHz Pentium M processor and integrated graphics as the m5e, this new edition doubles both RAM and HDD capacity to 2GB and 400GB, respectively, and also throws in both analog and digital tuners for keeping you entertained. You get a fairly wide variety of connectivity options with this one -- USB 2.0, FireWire, DVI, VGA, S-video, and digital coax -- along with Dolby Digital and DTS support for hooking up your surround sound speakers to the included RCA outputs. Of course, no HTPC would be complete without a DVD burner, remote control, and million-in-one card reader, so the Sport Edition -- rolling into dealerships now -- mixes in those ingredients as well.
HDMI to add more features
They're not stopping at version 1.2, HDMI's Licensing group today announced that they plan to add more features to the specification in the coming year, while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing devices (believe it when I see it). In addition to the tighter relationship with PC's via the newly announced UDI connector, they expect to support greater color depths (30, 36 and 48 bit), higher speed connections, a new mini connector for cameras, a/v synchronization and new audio formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD.
