Media @ Home

The Home Automation DIY blog has posted The Ultimate List of Home Automation Software for iPhone. There’s lots of links to applications for managing your media collections (MP3 music, videos, etc.). Go check it out.

The company announced it will discontinue HD DVDs as of December 15th. Any HD DVD titles in your Queue will be automatically replaced with standard DVDs when available - the company said in an e-mail to its subscribers.

Yes, that’s correct, now you can save yourself $399.00 by turning your iPhone (or iPod® touch) into a full-fledged Sonos Controller. All you would need is a free iPhone application.

“It uses the familiar touch-screen interface and fits in your pocket so you can carry it with you all over the house.”  It lets you control what music is playing in every room in your house (provided you have ZonePlayers installed in all those rooms). The interface looks great and the volume controls allow you to set different volume levels in different rooms.

It also offers support for the most popular music services such as Best Buy™ Digital Music Store, Last.fm, Napster®, Pandora®, Rhapsody® 3.0+, SIRIUS® Internet Radio, and downloads from any service offering DRM-free tracks.

The application is getting rave reviews, so if you own a Sonos system, go update your Sonos System Software to version 2.7, and then download the free Sonos Controller for iPhone application from the Apple’s App Store.

Screen shots after the break… (more…)

The Windows SideShow Team has announced that the final version of the Windows Media Center Gadgets for Windows SideShow is now available for download on Windows Live Gallery!

Windows Media Center Gadgets for Windows SideShow includes four gadgets—TV, Music, Pictures and Video, and Now Playing—that you can use to control most Media Center functions from a SideShow-compatible device.

I wrote about these cool gadgets a while back. And now you can get the official release. Yeay! If you are a lucky owner of SideShow-ready device and you have Media Center, it’s a must have download. (more…)

Exceptional Innovation LLC today stroke a deal with AVAD on exclusive distribution of its Life|ware software through 37 AVAD branches nationwide. Each branch will provide training and demo facilities for dealers.

Life|ware is a software for controlling home automation devices such as: Lighting, Thermostats, Security alarms, Cameras, Window Shades, Audio Devices. Life|ware is seamlessly integrated into a Windows Media Center PC, converging home control with digital entertainment via a simple remote control interface.

AVAD is one of the largest US distributors for custom installation industry. They have tried other Media Center based solutions in the past, namely Niveus products, “but few of the boxes were sold and the two companies parted ways”. (more…)

Samsung and DivX have reached a multi-year agreement to add DivX video playback to a range of Samsung TVs.

The TVs will be able to play DivX files directly via USB slots or via Ethernet connections certified by the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA).

DivX says these TVs are expected to hit the market nationwide in early 2009. Samsung already offers DivX certified components, including DVD players.

Source: CE Pro

Looking for a nice big hard drive to host all your DVDs and MP3s? Then don’t miss that deal over at TigerDirect on a Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1000GB Hard Drive for $99.99. Yup, that’s ONE TERABYTE of storage for under $100! Sweet!

This Drive Holds
- 424 two-hour DVD-quality movies or
- 1500 hours of VHS-quality video or
- 880 days of around-the-clock MP3 audio or
- 373,000 vivid digital photos or
- 2122 action-packed games!

Reduced Power Idle Modes
Unique to Hitachi drives, the Deskstar 7K1000 features three advanced low-power idle modes – active, unload and low-power. Together, they reduce power consumption at the drive level up to 20%, optimize non-operational latency and lower drive temperature for cooler system operation.

What are you waiting for? Go get it while the deal is still hot!

Just 3 days after its release the i.TV becomes #1 in the App Store! And rightfully so — i.TV is one of the most beautiful, well thought through and feature rich applications I’ve seen in the App Store. And on top of it — it’s free, yes, FREE!

So, what is i.TV? (more…)

Velocity Micro signed an OEM deal with Fuze Media Systems in July, saying it would build and sell Fuze Media’s Windows Media Center-based entertainment solutions.

It’s part of Fuze’s effort to OEM its core technology to other manufacturers, enabling the software to be installed on other multimedia devices.

The CineMagix FuzeBox, which will be directly configured by Velocity Micro, features CableCARD support to watch and record digital content without a settop box or DVR. It uses the home’s network to simultaneously distribute audio to up to five different zones.
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Niveus Software Labs today released a new free Beta software called Niveus Search for limited testing by general public. Niveus Search is a plug-in for Windows Vista Media Center application that allows you to search across all your local media (including Music, Photo, Video, Recorded TV and even TV Guide) as well as few on-line sources such as Flickr, NetFlix and Live365.com.

The distribution consists of two components - the Niveus Control Server that allows remote access to Media Center and the actual Niveus Search plug-in, which after installation will show up in the main Media Center strip alongside TV+Movies, Sports, Music, etc.

The search process is very simple - select New Search from Niveus Search strip and type a few characters on your remote control or select keypad button to show “a-la iPhone” on-screen keypad (it has specific “.com” and “@” buttons, though I’m not quite sure why would you need them for searching your media files).

The Niveus Search strip also provides a Resent menu for quick access to your previous searches.

All in all Niveus Search could be a very useful little gadget especially for people with large media libraries.

The Niveus Search is available for 60 day trial download from Niveus Software Labs Forum. Free registration on the forum is required to download the file.

See the gallery for screen shots after the jump.
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