The Greatest Show on Earth!

Think life in the fast lane is expensive, lauded and posh? Yep, you are most certainly right. The lifestyles of the uber-rich are always decadent, lovely and uppity. And the rich have the financial means to enjoy some of the most extravagant toys that one could ever dream or think of. So should it really come as any surprise, to anybody that famous music engineer and producer, Jeremy Kipnis, owns a $6-Million dollar home theatre system? Not really, even though the price tag is a bit steep, hey who is counting when you rake in the dough every month right? Needless to say, we were a bit intrigued and decided to take a bit of a closer look at just what six million smackers can buy you for a home theatre these days, and rest assured it’s pretty damned fine!

 

Logitech Makes Universal Remotes Universally Accessible

Have you ever tried programming a universal remote? The process is more often than not arduous and incredibly taxing for simple minded folk such as I. That and the prohibitive starting cost of getting one of these remotes really tilts the scales in favor of keeping a bazillion separate remotes instead of just a universal one.

 

Logitech Speaker System Z623 Review

Computer technologies race forwards at dizzying speeds, but loudspeaker design hasn’t changed much in the past 100 years. It’s hardly surprising, then, that PC systems rarely include speakers, leaving you to choose your own or stick with your old ones.

 

[via - Bit-tech.net]

SilverStone SST-FT03B

The interior of the chassis utilizes SilverStone’s unique stack effect cooling layout so a Micro-ATX motherboard is mounted in 90 degree rotation to take advantage of hot air’s natural tendency to rise. This design also enables the FT03 to support graphics cards that are as long as 13.7 inches without the chassis taking up similar room depth-wise. In addition, the chassis also supports three 3.5” hard drives with one capable of hot-swapping function and one 2.5” drive bay for excellent storage flexibility. 

Logitech Introduces Solar-Powered Keyboard

Logitech introduced the Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750, the company's first light-powered keyboard. The novelty powers itself itself through its integrated solar panel whenever there's light, even indoors. No batteries or charging cables needed.

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD Review

Creative Labs has to be one of the most well known audio companies in the PC audio world.  They pioneered many audio technologies related to gaming and for a very long time they ruled the PC soundcard market with no real opposition.

[via - Bit-tech]

Glasses-Free 3D Makes You Look Like You Have a Muscle Spasm

Filmmaker and visual artist Francois Vogel has developed the world's strangest glasses-free 3D solution. In technical speak, this "system works only on 120Hz monitor displays [and] simulates 3D Active Shutter Glasses." Video after the break.

myTV is an Adobe Air based cross-platform application designed to create a personal TV for directly accessing  YouTube channels. It can be used to subscribe to video channels and playlists by simply copying and pasting links from your browser. You can also organize favorite videos by category, channel type and links. Since myTv is an Adobe Air application, therefore it can be installed on Windows, Mac and Linux based OS.

 

Dolby Setup Guide Fine-Tunes Your Simple or Serious Home Theater

Just because you've only got two speakers and a subwoofer doesn't mean you should just place the speakers wherever there's space. Audio firm Dolby offers an interactive app that shows the best speaker setups, angles, and distances for your living room.

 

Handbrake vs. Freemake: Video Converter Showdown

Handbrake is a very capable video converter, and while it's not the only option out there, it's one of the best. But that could soon change. A new video conversion utility (Windows only) is putting a spin on many of Handbrake's best features — and the results aren't half bad, either.
 

 

XBMC vs Plex vs Boxee: The Battle for Screen Supremacy

Like all things in the tech world, it started where you'd least expect. A group of programmers, using a leaked and illegal development kit, created one of the best media players we've seen to date. It was called Xbox Media Center, it ran on a gaming console, and it launched a new breed of multi-capable media suites that handled everything from YouTube streams to VCDs.

Skifta Streams Media to Your Phone or TV From Anywhere

Windows/Mac/Linux and Android: If you've been longing to stream your home media to your Android phone on-the-go, Skifta will do that and more. Not only will it stream to your phone, but will also stream to your friend's TV or stereo.

[via -Skifta]

ASRock E350M1 AMD Fusion ''Brazos'' Mini-ITX Motherboard

 

Better late than never. ASRock finally unveiled its mini-ITX motherboard based on the AMD Brazos platform, featuring AMD Fusion "Zacate" E-350 accelerated processing unit (APU). The APU integrates two x86-64 processing cores based on the "Bobcat" architecture with a DirectX 11 compliant AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics processing core. The ASRock E350M1 is a typical mini-ITX embedded platform motherboard. The board draws power from a standard 24-pin ATX power connector (20-pin will do), though from the looks of it, the same PCB can be reconfigured to have a 2-pin 12V DC power external input for use in some very tight cases.

WD Releases 750GB Scorpio Black 2.5-Inch Hard Drive

 

For all you notebook users who are always deleting things to make space for more downloads, Western Digital just announced it's brand new high-performance Scorpio Black drive. The new drive is a refresh of the 7200 RPM 2.5inch SATA hard drive with a bump in capacity to a girthy 750GB. Using Advanced Format technology, the WD Scorpio Black 750GB hard drive also incorporates a variety of data-protection features to actively monitor and protect valuable data.

[via - Lowyat.Net]

ECS New Black Deluxe H67H2-M Motherboard, Delivers Real 3D Experience

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) introduces the latest Intel based motherboard –ECS Black Deluxe H67H2-M motherboard is powered by Intel H67 express chipset supporting the 2nd generation Intel Core processor family. And ECS innovative features are specially designed for 3D home theater.

[via - TechPowerUP ]

KFA2 Announces Cable-Free Graphics Card

Galaxy sub-brand KFA² has announced a graphics card with no display outputs. Instead, the KFA² GTX 460 WHDI uses a wireless link to send the display output from your PC to your screen – whether that’s a conventional monitor or the HD TV in your lounge.

[via - Bit-Tech.net ]

ASUS Readies Fully-Loaded Brazos-Powered E35MI-I Deluxe Motherboard

Closely trailing other, ASUS also made its AMD Brazos platform motherboard public. The E35MI-I Deluxe from ASUS is filled to the brim with features, its most significant being a completely silent passive heatsink design that keeps the system cool without eating into precious mini-ITX board space. A large monolithic heatsink covers the central portion of the motherboard, cooling both the AMD Fusion E-350 dual-core processor and the Hudson M1 chipset. It uses a dense aluminum fin array to which heat is supplied from its base by heat pipes.

MSI Unveils its First AMD Brazos Mini-ITX Motherboard, E350IA-E45

MSI is ready with its motherboard based on the AMD Fusion "Brazos" platform. The motherboard major announced E350IA-E45, its first motherboard based on the platform in mini-ITX form-factor. It is intended for use on most entry-thru-mid range desktop PCs, office PCs, and HTPCs. At the heart of it is the AMD Fusion E-350 dual-core processor based on the "Bobcat" architecture. It embeds an AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics processor that is DirectX 11 compliant. The processor is aided by Hudson M1 single-chip chipset.

Sapphire Announces the First Fusion APU Motherboard

SAPPHIRE Technology, the world’s largest manufacturer and supplier of graphics systems based on technology from AMD has just announced its first mainboard based on the exciting new APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) architecture from AMD. As a result of close collaboration with AMD, SAPPHIRE will introduce the SAPPHIRE Pure White Fusion E350M1W mainboard through its Global channel - heralding a new generation of low-power, fully featured PC solutions.

AMD Announces Beginning of Fusion APU Era

 Today at the Consumer Electronics Show, AMD launched a new class of accelerated processor that combines more compute capabilities than any processor in the history of computing. The AMD Fusion Family of Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) incorporate – in a single die design – multi-core CPU (x86) technology, a powerful DirectX 11-capable discrete-level graphics and parallel processing engine, a dedicated high-definition video acceleration block, and a high-speed bus that speeds data across the differing types of processor cores within the design. 

Sapphire Readies HD 5570 Xtend TV Graphics Card with TV Tuner

Sapphire is keeping the All-in-Wonder series alive to an extant with its latest graphics card suited for home PCs and HTPCs, the Sapphire HD 5570 Xtend TV. The card is a full-height DirectX 11 compliant Radeon HD 5570 which integrates a standard-definition TV tuner. The tuner can scan for, and store channels, you can also program the software to record them at a set time. As a graphics card, it packs 320 stream processors and 512 MB/1 GB of GDDR3 memory over a 128-bit memory interface.

Review Gigabyte 880GM-USB3

Although it takes little time in the market and is hard to find, this Gigabyte deserves its own right as one of the chosen when we decided to set up a HTPC with AMD.

A highlight its excellent connectivity back, including the innovative USB 3.0 ports, its not come with SATA III, but dont worry, we will not need much speed in our HTPC. Availible on market RM369. Review is done by MadboxPC (translated to english)

Western Digital WD TV Live

Western Digital has announced that its WD TV Live HD media player is the first network media player compatible with Windows 7. Thanks to a firmware upgrade users can now initiate and control the streaming of video, music or photos to the WD TV Live HD media player and home entertainment systems from any Windows 7-based PC on their network.

The WD TV Live HD media player connects to a home network via Ethernet for a wired connection or with an optional Wi-Fi adapter. Any compatible media file accessible from the PC – located either on the PC or the network – can be played to the WD TV Live by right clicking on the file name in the folder or directly from within Windows Media Player 12 and choosing the WD TV Live HD media player as the playback device.

 

This means the WD TV Live HD now makes it easy to play media – including Full-HD 1080p video – on the home’s big screen TV. Content can be played from USB and network drives or any PC on the home network as well as websites. The unit can also display photos and movies directly from any digital camera or device that supports the Picture Transfer Protocol.

To make finding files easy users are able to navigate around thumbnail and list views, media library and search options using the included remote control. Transfer of files by copying, moving or deleting files stored on a USB drive, a network drive, a camcorder, or a camera to the attached USB drive is also possible using the on-screen menus.

The ultra compact WD TV Live HD unit comes with HDMI 1.3, composite and component video outputs, as well as an SPDIF digital audio output. It is available now for RM419.

XBMC 10.0 "Dharma"

Windows/Mac/Linux: XBMC, the powerful, trimmed-down media center that's easy to love, is out with a 10.0 "Dharma" release. New in this version are add-ons and skins you can add and change from your remote control, along with hardware acceleration and more

The 10.0 changelog shows all the little tweaks made here and there across XBMC, but the biggies are hardware acceleration for certain video cards in Windows Vista and 7, support for the increasingly popular WebM web video codec, and VDPAU support for Linux. What existing users will really dig, though, is the instant access to all the add-ons that make YouTube videos, browsers, media naming and sorting tools, and even classic video games available on XBMC can now be added and updated through a common interface.

XBMC 10.0 is a free download for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems, and is available as a live CD/USB image for trying out.

XBMC 10.0 [via Download Squad]

AOpen HT80-D

 

AOpen HT80 housing series are the unique Micro-ATX and Flex-ATX chassis. This series is designed for Home Theater Personal Computer (aka HTPC) and provides four different models from A to D: HT80A, HT80B, HT80C and HT80D. The HT80D is the top of the line product, providing a remote controller and multi function LCD in front of its panel. HT80B also provides a remote controller but without LCD capability. HT80A and HT80C are the basic versions without remote controller and LCD, however, you can select the front panels based on your preference.

 

All HT80 housings are placed horizontally for space saving while sharing similar looks as audio and video devices such as amplifier and disc player. All HT80 series have a sleek black front panel and body. On the front of every HT80, there are two USB2.0 ports, one IEEE1394, audio-out and microphone-in connectors. All HT80 series have four low profile PCI slots, a 3.5” and a 5.25” drive bay. It also provides a 275W or 375W power supply unit. Additionally, the remote controller (HT80B and HT80D) is great partner of Microsoft Windows® XP/Vista/7 Media Center Edition.

AOpen HT80D housing is an excellent housing that supports multifunction LCD monitors in the front panel to build an all-in-one HTPC system. The multifunction LCD can display weather information of selected cities, Media Info, System Info (including OS, Login, CPU, Memory, HDD, Network, Speaker information), Headline News, E-mail Check, scheduled power on/off, and alarm/sleep clock features with its Graphical display which will be very handy in your life. These great features have gained HT80D many great reviews and rankings, making it the best choose of HTPC housing!

SilverStone ML02 HTPC Casing with Multi-Character LCD

ML02 is what a multimedia MoDT (mobile on desktop) chassis is meant to be. With a height of only 82mm, it is the underlying characteristic of MoDT. ML02 has solid 4.0mm aluminum frames that wrap all around the sturdy SECC body structure. The elegant acrylic front panel with Multilanguage LCD (via remote control) gives a nice overall contrast. With the aid of an intelligent airflow layout design taken from the LC19, this slimming beauty can make a statement in any multimedia environments.

Special Feature

• Designed for MoDT (mobile on desktop) systems
• Ultra-slim profile at 82mm tall
• Sturdy steel chassis suitable for silent operation
• Multilanguage LCD and remote control included (ML02MX only)
• Fanless PSU included

Price : RM899

 [via Phoronix ]