Entries tagged with htpc - Channel 10

eHome Expo - Superna

Larry — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:45:00 GMT

Superna is a company that makes solutions to connect all your different systems together. They have a software layer that will connect your XP Media Center, Vista Media Center, home automation, and touch panels from various third parties.

Oded Vardi from Superna spent a few minutes telling me about their whole home system and walks us through Superna's ControlWare.

eHome Expo - Cutting Edge PCs

Larry — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:32:00 GMT

While in Orlando at the Electronic Home Expo, I got a chance to visit with John Oliver from Cutting Edge PC's. Cutting Edge makes some really nice high end Media Center machines with features like Whole House Control and integration with VideoGiant.

eHome Expo - Autonomic Controls

Larry — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:37:00 GMT

While in Orlando for the Electronic Home Expo, I talked to Michael De Nigris from Autonomic Controls. They have a very cool system for Media Center that includes some very innovative solutions. For starters, they can take a 7.1 sound card (which is technically 8 channels) and split it into 4 individual stereo zones that they can send throughout your house.

They also have a solution for using a UMPC (or TabletPC, or laptop) as an uber remote control for your Media Center. Very cool.

eHome Expo - Cannon PC

Larry — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:39:00 GMT

I was in Orlando for the Electronic Home Expo and met up with Gregg Cannon from CannonPC.com. Cannon PCs are high end Media Center PCs including HTPC boxes, rack mount PCs, and a very nice EX series with a built-in LCD.

I talked to Gregg about why they choose to focus on Media Center devices and the differences between a Cannon PC and something you'd get in a consumer "big box" store. Gregg also has another announcement coming next month so stay tuned.

S1Digital HTPC Solutions

Nic — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 10:20:00 GMT

S1Digital are a company based out of New York offering custom built, high end HTPC solutions for both the end user and professional installer.

One area that differentiates S1Digital in the premium HTPC space is that they have a consumer-direct channel via their web site where you can customise and order HTPC's like the Media Center Mini Edition.

We sat down with Paul from S1Digital back at CES 2008 to learn some more about the company and the types of rigs they build and sell.

Company Web Site: http://www.s1digital.com/

Premium HTPC solutions from Niveus Media

Nic — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 10:40:00 GMT

Niveus Media had their impressive Media Extender - EDGE device on display at CES 2008. A high end, full 1080P, multi zone media center extender targeted at the premium audio/videophile market.
One feature that sets Niveus Media devices - including the EDGE - apart is the passive cooling system that is incorporated into the devices housing which enables virtually silent operation.
We spoke with Tim Cutting, CEO and co-founder of Niveus Media, at CES 2008 to learn some more about the company and the range of products and services they offer.

Talking High End HTPCs with Inteset

Nic — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 05:34:00 GMT

From 4TB, rack mounted, RAID 5 content servers (for the home) to gold tipped, passively cooled, multi-room Media Center extenders, the world of high end, home theatre PCs (HTPCs) will have most of us drooling and seriously consider smashing open the piggy bank.

One of the companies at CES this year in the high end HTPC space was Inteset. We sat down with David Hirsh from Inteset to talk about the types of products and services his company offers and what sets high end HTPC's apart.

Company Web Site: http://www.inteset.com/

Automate your home, AV with life|ware

Nic — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:48:00 GMT

One of the most impressive displays at CES 2008 wasn't on the show floor. Instead of a traditional plasma-screens-and-pamphlets CES booth life|ware chose to build three fully functional homes out front of the Las Vegas Convention Center to show off the various home automation products and solutions they offer.

Jason from life|ware gave us a tour of the living room in one of the e-homes and showed us some very cool home automation solutions integrated with Windows Vista Media Center.

For more info on life|ware visit http://www.life-ware.com

HD Touchscreens & RFID at the Silverstone CES 2008 Booth

Nic — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 03:20:00 GMT

If you like to build your own Home Theatre PC (HTPC) or gaming rigs and have done some research into cases or cooling solutions you've probably heard of Silverstone.

We caught up with Tony Ou from Silverstone at CES 2008 for a look at some of the new products on show including an HTPC case with embedded 1080P touchscreen and a 2.5" hard drive enclosure with RFID encryption.

More info: http://www.silverstonetek.com/

Be a Certified HTPC Pro

Larry — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:22:00 GMT

Sure you know your component from your composite and your CardSpace from your CableCard, who doesn't, right? But if your day gig is setting up A/V equipment, how does a potential employer or customer know that? And you probably thought that Microsoft Certified Professional exams were for those monad scripters on Channel 9, well - not so. Microsoft has MCP exams for technologists too.

Right now you can register to take the beta of the Windows Vista Connected Experience: Home Theater for Technologists exam and get a professional accredidation that shows you know how to design and build a solution for home theater systems based on the Windows Vista platform. The cost for these exams is normally $125 and can be taken at any Prometric testing center like other certifications, but since this is a beta you can take it for free. Yes, you will get a certificate if you pass, but because this is a beta you won't know right away if you passed or not. It's a great deal and you have nothing to lose so give it a try.

To take the test, just use this code: PAGHT.

Samsung activates silent drive

Larry — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:01:00 GMT

Let’s say you’re building a HTPC (home theater PC) or even a desktop for your office and you want to keep the noise to a bare minimum. Besides fans, your biggest noise culprit is probably going to be your hard drive, which can make anything from a weird whirring noise to a nasty grinding noise when copying files. Samsung has fixed this with a new line of silent hard drives called the SpinPoint S166 Series.

The new drives will be up to 8 decibels quieter than other drives while retaining the same 7200 RPM, 3Gb/sec speeds.

The drives will ship with 8MB caches in SATA and PATA versions.