Media @ Home

The recent announcement by Mountain View giant caused the news waves going around the globe.

Yes, I’m talking about Google TV, the latest attempt of the company to get into, and potentially dominate, yet another (and arguably the largest) AD medium – your TV.

So what is Google TV and how is it different from other solutions, such as Boxee or Roku?

Google TV is primarily a software application running either on a set-top box or directly inside specifically-designed TVs.

The software will run on Android platform and will include Google’s Chrome browser that will allow you to browse the entire world wide web and get access to multitude of online video services including, but not limited to, Youtube, Netflix and Hulu (provided Hulu would not block it, like it did for Boxee and Kylo). The platform will be powered by some custom version of Intel’s Atom processor and will feature the upcoming version of Flash (v10.1) which is specifically optimized for hardware video processing.

Google TV will feature some unique capabilities, such as using your cell phone as a remote allowing you to speak your commands to Google TV. (continue reading this article and leave comments here…)

Here’s a piece of news I was waiting for…

My Movies for iPhone Light is now available in the iPhone App Store, and to support it, My Movies Collection Management and My Movies for Windows Home Server 3.13 have been released in final versions.

Mike Flacy of Audio|Video Revolution came up with a list of 30 “must have” iPhone applications for Home Theater buffs.

The categories of apps reviewed range from Movie Management to Universal remotes, to TV Guides and from Audio/Video Calibration helpers to Reference materials. Most apps are available from the AppStore for free, but then there are those that could cost you as much as $150 (Ouch!).

Some of the apps were new to me, while others I use on a daily basis. In any case the article is definitely worth checking out. So head on to Audio|Video Revolution website for details.

Here’s the complete list of apps mentioned in the review:

1. Pocketflicks
2. Now Playing
3. RunPee
4. IMDB
5. Redbox
6. HippoRemote Pro
7. Flpr
8. iMastercontrol Pro
9. Remote (Apple)
10. BoxeeRemote (continue reading this article and leave comments here…)

It appears I landed on Santa’s “Good Kids” list last year. He was quite generous this past holiday season and — with a little help from my friends and family — brought me some really nice gadgets. Dust has settled since and I had to spend some quality time with my new gear, so I decided to give them a quick rundown in this post, saving the juicy details for the future.

The luxury of touch

Touch Screen

The idea of controlling Windows Media Center through touch interface was hunting me since I played with one of the first HP TouchSmart systems on the shelves of Costco. I already had HTPC, so I didn’t want to buy a new system. The obvious solution was to just add touch-capable display to my own HTPC. Searching high and low, I was soon discouraged, since all available touch screens were way too expensive – a 12″ displays are sold for over $500. But I managed to find one that fit my budget and works quite well with Windows 7 Media Center. Beware that in many cases drivers for Vista or Win7 could be hard to find or even unavailable, so check driver availability BEFORE you invest in a touch screen.

Movies on the go

DVD headrests

For some time now I’ve been looking to upgrade my car’s headrests with nice LCD ones to entertain little passengers during long trips. Paying over $2000 for a DVD package on a new car doesn’t make any sense to me. For that much money these days you can buy a TV, a blu-ray player and a truckload of movies. Unfortunatelly none of those portable DVD players I saw in stores met all my requirements. Partly due to the lack of support for the multitude of media formats available today, partly because many kid’s movies I have are from a different DVD region, so none of the players sold in US could play them. But now I have headrests that could do all that and then some (like playing games with 4 included joysticks or reading media from all major flash cards).

Being able to watch a good movie in the car, on your netbook or other mobile device, like iPod Touch, while you travel is nice. Watching movies on a big HDTV screen is way better. So you have two options: 1) use a cable to connect your mobile device to a TV and jump from the couch every time you want to pause, rewind or skip or 2) buy a tiny HDD Media Player that can hold hundreds of HD movies and could be controlled with an infrared remote. What’s your choice? #2. I thought so. That’s exactly what I did. And at $25 for the HDD enclosure with IR remote control this deal is hard to beat. (continue reading this article and leave comments here…)

Yugster has done it again! This time you can get PlayOn streaming software for half off the sticker price.

Don’t delay though, the deal is only for one day (2/24/10), so head on to Yugster and push that “I Want One” button now!

PlayOn unlocks the power of your Wii, Xbox 360, or PlayStation 3 to watch your favorite movies, shows and videos from Hulu, CBS, Netflix, YouTube, CNN, ESPN and more streamed right to your TV. It’s wireless. And, there is no need to purchase a new device, connect messy cables, or worry about your cable bill. It’s no wonder we were named one of The Top 100 New Innovations of 2009 by Popular Science Magazine.

PlayOn runs on your Windows PC and streams to your gaming console, giving you access to a wide range of Internet content on your TV — Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, Amazon VOD, and many others.

PlayOn is Simple to Set-Up and Easy to Use
To enjoy PlayOn, you need a networked PC, and a Wii, Xbox 360, or PlayStation 3. PlayOn also enables you to stream your personal videos, photos and music from your PC to your Home Entertainment Center. It takes less than 3 minutes to set up – and we’ll show you how.

Take a Look at What You Can Watch With PlayOn! (continue reading this article and leave comments here…)

PacketVideo (PV), the creator of the most popular premium media server available today** is running a promotion till the end of this month.

You can get the TwonkyMedia server and TwonkyMedia manager at 50% of their retail prices.

Coupon code TWONKYMEDIA-2XX9-A for the 50% off discount expires on 1/31/2010. 50% discount cannot be applied to previous purchases.

(continue reading this article and leave comments here…)

Win7 Home Premium

Yes, it has. It’s October 22, 2009 – the official release date of “the best Windows ever released” (a.k.a. Windows 7).

It’s also a release date of the best Media Center application ever released. No, it’s not a coincedence. Media Center is an integral part of Windows 7 (well, at least of its Home Premium and Ultimate editions).

A lot of Media Center funboys were waiting for this day to come. And Microsoft has spared no effort to polish the GUI and to support all the media and hardware you might have. They even let the DIY crowd to install cable card tuners (but that’s a different story altogether).

If you aren’t planning on byuing a new PC with Windows 7 pre-installed on it, you can head over to Microsoft Store to get the upgrade version from your current OS. I bet it’ll be worth it.

Hulu.com, the website that provides legal, full-length TV shows, movies and other video content on demand, today updated their APIs, so that third-party developers like Boxee, Re-Quest and others can no longer use Hulu’s video content in their products. 

They (Hulu) explained that studios (i.e. content providers) requested that step to be taken, “and we are respecting their wishes”, said Hulu CEO Jason Kilar. (continue reading this article and leave comments here…)

If you have ever envied the owners of a $500 gadget called ZeeVee and wondered if there would be any way to watch all that great TV content available online inside your Windows Media Center, rejoice, soon there will be! (continue reading this article and leave comments here…)

Windows Media Center is the Best DVR application according to survey conducted by LifeHacker with 31% of votes. The other contestans were MythTV (28% of votes), TiVo (20%), SageTV (10%), GB-PVR (6%) and BeyondTV (5%).

I totally agree with the outcome (by the way I voted for WMC as well), though I have to admit — I never tried TiVo DVR.

Read the full story at LifeHacker.