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Vista no longer needs a NTSC tuner
Our long time friend, Kevin C. Tofel, has been keeping us up-to-date with his latest crusade and it appears that he was victorious. Kevin has been following Vista's ridiculous NTSC requirement for some time and is now reporting that Microsoft has dropped it. (to be honest though, we kind of knew it was coming) Vista now allows an ATSC tuner to setup Media Center in the latest build of Vista. (5456) Previous versions would not allow a person to use a digital tuner for this which raised some big flags across the 'net. Didn't Microsoft know that on February 17, 2009 those analog tuners would be obsolete? Sure, there were ways around it, but that involved installing an NTSC tuner for the setup and then later swapping it for an ATSC one; you shouldn't have to do that.Well, you don't anymore 'cause Vista now works nicely with ATSC tuners!
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.
Slingbox released in UK
Because you can never have convenient enough access to all that great BBC programming, Sling Media has just released a version of their popular Slingbox for British TV junkies. The UK model has been tweaked a bit for European viewing, with PAL tuners replacing the NTSC versions found in US boxes, and a DVB-T tuner thrown in for placeshifting that sweet, sweet OTA Freeview content. In conjunction with the UK rollout, the folks at Sling also announced an updated version of the SlingPlayer PC software, whose main upgrades include widescreen 16:9 support and a skinnable client. Slingbox: UK will initially be available exclusively at PC World's website and retail locations -- and at Currys stores in four to six weeks -- for £180, VAT included.
Vista will not require a NTSC tuner
It wasn't that long ago that we were amazed that the NTSC requirement from Windows XP Media Center Edition was still a fact of life in Windows Vista Beta 2. This really bothered us for obvious reasons, like we have room for a NTSC card in our ultimate HD Media Center PC. Even if we did it, would take up the space for one of our ATSC tuners. Lucky for us the official unofficial word is out, Jay P. Kapur of the Media Center TV Team confirmed at AVS Forum that Vista will not need an NTSC Tuner![Via Chris Lanier's Blog]
Vista requires a NTSC tuner - UPDATE 1
Did you know this? In order to setup the WMCE part of Vista, it requires you to have a NTSC tuner card. An ATSC, or digital, will not work. It is a requirement by Microsoft to have an analog tuner card in your Vista box to watch digital TV. Sure, Vista is still in beta testing and all, but do you think that the Vista team knows that the NTSC tuner will be shutoff on Feb. 17, 2009. This is the same case in the Windows Media Center 2005 but it should not be in Microsoft's latest and greatest OS. There is a workaround however, even though you shouldn't have to use it. A person could use an external USB analog tuner to setup Media Center then use whatever tuner they want. Thoughts? UPDATE 1: Fixed digital switch-over date.
Region-free PS3, free online multiplayer confirmed
During a Q&A session with media over lunch after yesterday's GDC keynote, Sony's Phil Harrison confirmed that PS3 software will be region free and that multiplayer gaming will also be free.While we'd heard rumblings of the region-free set-up for games back in early November, we hadn't heard any official confirmation outside of Australia until just the other day. Importers (as well as online gamers) should be quite pleased with the development, though this move likely won't follow for Blu-ray movie discs. It's good to see the region-free status of PSP games spread to the PS3's.If online multiplayer is included as part of Sony's free basic service (known internally as the "PlayStation Network Platform"), then what would constitute Sony's premium service besides the typical content downloads for games? Subscriptions for movie and/or music services, perhaps? And going back to the region-encoding news, it's heartening for our friends on the Continent to hear Phil's following statement: "It's possible for developers to put all the TV formats - PAL, NTSC, HDTV, and so on - on the disc." Can Sony bring the world together with games?[Thanks, DarkFlash; image taken from Final Fantasy Odyssey]See also: Free basic service on "PlayStation Network Platform" GDC: The PS3 keynote blow by blow ["P(S)NP" just an internal name] PS3 region encoding unlikely? [from Sony Computer Ent. Australia] PS3 to share region encoding on Blu-ray [for the U.S. and Japan?]
AVerTV USB tuner for WMCE
AVerMedia's AVerTV USB MCE external TV tuner is a step in the right direction for folks without a tuner or available expansion card slot in their Windows Media Center PC. The $129 device is USB 2.0 capable and provides MPEG-2 hardware compression, which is generally faster than software compression. If you need a primary or even secondary tuner, this is a simple add-on, but there's only one problem as the tuner is NTSC-only. WMCE requires an NTSC tuner (we still don't understand that one) for you to configure an ATSC tuner, so this could still be helpful for some folks. We tried to check for an MPEG-4 or ATSC solution, but the company's domain expired a week ago, so all we see is static.
History of ATSC in Windows Media Center
Ever wonder how ATSC support ended up in Windows Media Center? Peter Rosser is Microsoft Media Center developer, so we figure he's qualified to teach the history lesson. Back in Media Center 2002, NTSC was the predominant over the air requirement, so support for the analog standard was integrated. Although ATSC usage is small by comparison, it made sense for WMCE to work with it in the next iteration, considering we're heading towards a digital horizon. Peter gives a great history along with the technical challenges of video rendering and guide data; all in all, a great read.Thanks Josh!
When will handheld analog TVs stop being sold?
We were nosing through tomorrow's newspaper ads today thanks to our super secret time travel machine and noticed this Axion 3.5-inch handheld LCD TV on sale tomorrow at RadioShack. We don't know much about it, but if you're interested, it's $50 off starting tomorrow, so it can be had for a C-note. Nothing against "the Shack" or Axion, but as good a deal as this sounds, we wouldn't touch it. Why would we spend a hundred dollars on a TV that won't be worth a hundred pennies in three years?These handheld TVs were all the rage in the '80s and even the '90s, but the analog cutoff basically spells doom for the analog versions of these, no? Come to think of it, we really haven't seen any DTV versions of these that incorporate an ATSC tuner just yet. This is an interesting shift for the industry that manufacturers these li'l fellas: will they retrofit their plants to include ATSC tuners or will the handheld TV die a slow death until February 17th, 2009?
