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POWER Watch fan controller with LCD gauges
Racing fans everywhere will surely appreciate the new "POWER Watch" fan controller from Japanese manufacturer Scythe, which displays all of your PC's vital signs on a large, tachometer-like LCD, and which would perfectly complement your NASCAR-branded desktop from Cisnet. Besides letting you tweak fan speeds and constantly monitor your machine's health, the POWER Watch also includes Powered USB capabilities, a few connectivity ports and a handful of memory card slots, which actually seem to be more of a necessity when you consider how this monster will hog all of your free drive bays.
HDTV Listings for April 22, 2006
What we're watching: NBA Playoffs time is here. The best basketball between the best teams (except for the Eastern conference, three teams under .500? Weak.) Lebron, Gilbert, Dwyane, Carmelo, Ron-ron, Timmay and all their rowdy friends are in HD all day on ABC and ESPN, you gotta love it.Also on deck is some evening NASCAR action from Phoenix, you gotta watch that, if there is one more girlfriend fight they may as well add Jell-o wrestling to the schedule (not a bad thing).Our traditional high-def listings continue below.
HDTV Listings for April 9, 2006
What we're watching: No Desperate Housewives, no new Grey's no problem? Seems that way today . We'll be checking to see who puts on the green jacket at Augusta today, the broadcast is absolutely beautiful. There's also NASCAR action, NBA and MLB on deck for tonight. A couple of TV movies should spice things up, with Covert One:The Hades Factor on CBS and Avenger on TNT.Our traditional high-def listings continue below.
NASCAR Grand National racing coming back to HDNet
Love racing?Love high definition?Get happy, because more of both is coming your way. After inking a deal with NASA, HDNet has announced the broadcast schedule for their third season of NASCAR Grand National Series racing beginning April 20th from Phoenix. I haven't had a chance to see HDNet's NASCAR broadcast, are they up to the usual quality of Fox and NBC's high definition presentations?
NFL is only now considering HDTV-based instant replay?
We're sure there are some Seahawks fans who think 1080i should have been in use during this past Super Bowl. Buried in this otherwise mundane article about the NFL considering more overseas games is a blurb about the director of officiating visiting NASCAR this weekend. He's checking out their on site HDTV displays that cover every camera angle shown in a race, and is considering switching to high definition for instant replays.We at HD Beat certainly appreciate the tough job referees have, but we think it would be much easier if for example during every instant replay, they went over to our friend Hoyt's theater to take a better look at things. We have much experience in these situations, and can say with absolute certainty that our blind mothers could call a game more accurately while sitting on the couch watching HD than (some) referees.Seriously, a 106" screen versus whatever little TV the ref usually looks at on the sidelines, its not even a comparison. Now the only question is what technology: projection, CRT, flat panel, plasma, LCD, DLP?
HDTV Sports Sunday: Golf & Indy don't get it done
NBA: CheckNCAA: CheckNASCAR: CheckPGA & IRL: ZzzzzzzzzzzzI guess I don't have much to complain about. A close game between the Pacers and 76ers is on ABC, NASCAR Nextel Cup action is about to kick off in Bristol on Fox, and CBS' sharp-but-pixely Elite 8 coverage is less than an hour away. But what if I wanted to check out Vijay, Retief, Tiger and the guys out at Sawgrass? Golf is already boring to watch (it is, I like to play golf but watching it is like watching someone else take a walk in the park), in SD it's a no-go. The IRL (R.I.P. Paul Dana) keeps trying to tell me how big a star Danica Patrick is going to be but if I don't see her in 720p then well, I won't see her.
No HD NASCAR this weekend
HDSportsguide.com is reporting that there is no HD love for NASCAR this weekend. Despite the fact that ESPN brought us a HD NFL game from Mexico last year it appears that FOX isn't up to the challenge. I don't know much about HDTV productions, especially when comparing a NFL event to a NASCAR event. Either way, it's disappointing to the millions of NASCAR fans that will have to go without HD. I would assume that they will at least present it in FOX widescreen which is much better than 4x3 SD.
This may be the best HDTV Sports Sunday yet
2006 really is the year high definition is taking over, and today's sports lineup proves it. Say what you will about NBC's HD Olympics coverage, the Daytona 500 is just kicking off and it may not even be the biggest event today. With speedskating and bobsled finals tonight, plus the always exciting ice dancing, the Olympics have a lot to offer, as well as some little thing called the NBA All-Star Game.Sure the Super Bowl got all the attention, but any of these events by themselves would be great, and to have all three on one day is mind boggling, luckily the 500 is so early, or I'd have some difficult choices to make with my DVR. Too bad the weather isn't better at Daytona as it's more impressive when it's not so overcast, hopefully it will clear up as the day goes on. Still, those wall mounted-cameras are for my money the most exciting shot in sports.But it has been a great weekend, because we've already had ongoing Olympics coverage, yesterdays Busch series race (was that in HD? I missed it) and the NBA All-Star Friday and Saturday night activities. Speaking of, did anybody else check out the Slam Dunk competition last night? I love Nate Robinson but Iguodala got robbed, his from-behind-the-backboard dunk was one of my favorite ever, plus JR Smith already did the behind the back dunk last year.
Free NASCAR preview in the iTunes Store
Attention, race fans (NASCAR in particular). There is a free, 20 minute preview of the upcoming Daytona 500 in the iTunes Store* [link]. Watch interviews with drivers, check out clips of 2006 "test cars" as well as never-before-seen archival footage. Did I mention it's free?The interesting thing to note here is that the clip is categorized under the heading NASCAR 2006 Races, which implies that more videos will be added as the season progresses.*Can we drop the "music" now? iTunes ceased to be exclusively a music store a while ago.[Via TuneVision]
DLP car to ride in NASCAR 2006
Not content to just power HDTV sets, the Texas Instruments DLP brand is going to power a NASCAR team. Well, it won't be under the hood, but it will be on the hood. In 2006, TI is sponsoring a new Joe Gibbs NASCAR team called "The Hall of Fame" team.The new team primarily sponsored by TI was formed by NFL Hall of Famers Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach. From an advertising standpoint, this seemingly odd pairing of sponsor and event actually makes sense. NASCAR is one of the few sports that broadcasts most of its events in high definition. With the astounding growth in NASCAR viewing, the deal brings a major producer-to-consumer relationship for TI's DLP technology.
Widget watch: Nascar news
Having grown up with Pocono Downs in my backyard, I keep a special place in my heart for auto racing (I still have the picture of me at 7 standing next to Mario Andretti's car). So I was happy to find Nascar News by Travel Widgets. Nascar News displays the RSS feeds of several racing news outlets, including Fox Sports, Nextel Cup, Busch Series and Truck Series. Click any news item to read more detail in your browser. Incidentally, Travel Widgets makes some other interesting widgets, including a few webcam viewers, like the Oregon coast and Washington coast, several lighthouse cams (the closest one to my house I could find was Nantucket harbor), a hurricane tracker and NOAA weather radio. Check them out.
