Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

I never found TV tuner cards for your PC that appealing and never heard any that were really outstanding from anyone i knew, but this little number caught my attention and seems to do away with the need for a card in your PC at all. Basically a networked Tuner card. Plug your external or i guess internal aerial (if you’ve got one of those good ones) into the back and it can send out the Freeview love to any PC or Mac on your network.

“Well what else does it do?” you might ask. Once connected to your aerial, connect it to your router whether it be a standard ethernet router or wireless (Elgato recommend a standard N Router for efficient usage) then the TV signal can be picked up on any computer hooked up to it. Then like Sky+, you can pause it as you watch or record onto the computers HDD and watched at a later date all whilst someone else can watch a different channel in a different location on the network.

Available this week in the UK it’s priced at £229.95

StorE TV, the next-generation of media centre , another product recently posted by Toshiba. The little black box will come in various storage sizes, sit under your telly and play all the media you want whether it be movies, music or pictures.

Currently in pre-production, Toshiba outed a first draft if you will of the StorE TV and boy does it look interesting. It will be available in 3 storage sizes, starting at 1TB, 1.5TB and then 2TB. With built in Wi-Fi it can stream media wirelessly to your TV via it’s HDMI out, from a networked PC and other UPnP devices. HD videos, mp3s, jpegs. You name it it’ll show it. Also you can plug in USB sticks, external hard drives even an external DVD drive. It also sports a card reader for image or camcorder playback.

The software running it is still in development stage and therefore doesn’t give the full potential that may be offered by the StorE TV. Suggestions of “internet services” amongst other things could well be on the way so we’ll keep an eye out if things progress and it still looks like a nifty gadget in the future towards release which Toshiba is hoping for the Autumn time of this year.

Looking for a decent media streamer? Not got a PS3 or 360?(maybe you do and you want something a little more dedicated.) Then Taiwanese specialists ASUS are letting us in Blighty get our grubby little mitts on the O!PlayAir HDP-R3.

Not the first media streamer ASUS have brought to the table but this one is its first to incorporate WiFi a must in most peoples eyes for a good media streamer. Now this baby is packing N-standard WiFi so if you’ve got an N enabled WiFi network you’ll get the full benefits.

So what does it do? Well firstly plug it into your TV via HDMI. Set up the usual settings of your network and BAM! you can play media wirelessly straight from your PC(providing your up to date with your Windows Media Player) or media server. For those who have ethernet connections, you can use that too.It plays all your standard file types, AVI, MP4, MPG etc but the bonus it does is play MKV which if you’re not familiar with seems to be the most used now for HD content.

Asus haven’t set a UK price yet but the HDP-R3 is retailing in Italy at €129.90 which is around £115 and should be available hopefully by the end of the week.

Again we have a new set top box here for you, that when released we can all bask in the glory of HD without the need for a Sky or cable subscription. Obviously Freesat is available and quite tempting with thinks like BBC iPlayer and ITV player but unless you’ve got the know how to install the dish, you’re stumping up the cash for that and either your integrated tv or box aswell.

3View have come with this great little box that with dual tuners will be able to snap up that HD signal and also with a built in 320GB HDD you’ll be able to record all your favourite shows. Not only that the 3View box can connect to the internet, use BBC iPlayer, Twitter, Facebook etc and any other web page. The big thing it will do that most wont is have access to HULU when it gets released in the UK giving you more access to web based TV. If you think this might be hard on a remote, no worries a keyboard and mouse will be available.

No price details as of yet but 3View are looking at a release of March.

Ok so we said before about Freeview HD, when it was coming etc. Now Some masts are pumping out the signal, why aren’t there any set top boxes out there to pick this free HD signal up. Well I can’t personally explain that but what I can say is that the first set top boxes are outed and will be released next year.

Humax HD-FOX T2 should be out in Q1  next year. Firstly it’ll tune its self with its auto-tune facility, it’ll quite gladly receive the 720p yes that’s right 720p signal(not too futuristic yet) but this box will upscale to 1080p at 50Hz. It will play media from a USB drive or HDD. We don’t have the full details on file format support but one clever thing is you can record onto a USB drive to save buying the full PVR.

If you’re after a PVR version then the DVB-T2 HD has a 500GB HDD inside to store your favourite shows in HD and SD. It also keeps the 1080p upscaling, wireless network capability via UPnP and again the USB connectivity.

No prices are available yet or exact release dates but its believed the lower end HD-FOX T2 will retail at around £170

For those wanting something different from your regular Hi-Fi system or iPod dock, comes the Olive Opus 4. This high end, high quality digital music player offers a mindblowing 2TB in its flagship model which can store thousands of your cd’s and play them back in full cd quality, without the mess and constant changing of records. All controlled with an intuitive touchscreen.

Prices in America start at $1599 for 500GB , $1699 for 1TB and $1799 for 2TB

Full Specs for Opus 4  :-

• Music is stored using lossless compression (FLAC) for the best possible reproduction of the original recording, including every tone in the artists voices and individual instruments in vivid clarity
• Sound quality is further enhanced by a high resolution digital-to-analog converter (DAC), optimized circuit design and precision power supply
• Holds almost 6000 CDs so even the largest music collection is all instantly accessible
• Navigation is fast and intuitive through a color-coded touchscreen menu or familiar CD player buttons
• Digitizing music in high fidelity is incredibly easy - either insert CDs into the built-in CD drive and the music is imported and automatically categorized…or allow Olive to do the work for you with its CD digitizing service
• Playback can be expanded throughout the home using the Melody Hi-Fi Multi-Room Player, which connects to the Opus through a wireless or wired network and allows music to be played in up to 10 rooms simultaneously
• Thoughtful design, craftsmanship and high-quality materials - fine grade aluminum exterior etched with distinctive musical genre pattern is stylish, functional (cooling without a noisy fan) and recyclable
• Maestro browser-based software makes music management easy to do - drag & drop playlist creation, metadata personalization and album artwork customization
• Thousands of pre-set internet radio stations are available and adding other personal favorites is easy
• Metadata library is extensive and regularly bolstered by proprietary additions, e.g. only Olive includes such detailed genre-specific information for Classical as Composer, Work, Orchestra, Conductor, Instrument/Voice, Choir, Soloist and for Jazz as Artist, Album, Sidemen, Release Date, Music Label, Instrument/Voice, Original Recording Date
• Opus is not a computer peripheral, so it frees the music experience from PCs or network storage devices and related security/virus concerns
• Set-up is simple, no home installers are required

Source : Coolest-Gadgets

The Popcorn Hour A-110 was a big hit with geeks around the world for its almost unrivalled ability to handle media. Unfortunately it was not all perfect, the unit was a bit slow to navigate, it transferring files to it was extremely slow due to the 100Mb Ethernet and various other little annoyances.

Week now it seems most of these issues will hopefully be ironed out with the release of the Popcorn Hour C200. Some of the key improvements that are worth noticing are:

• A more powerful SMP8643 Sigma Chip compared to the A-110’s SMP8635. This should improve a lot of the issues the A-110 had.
• Gigabit Ethernet – This will make a huge difference if you are running a gigabit network.
• Possibly support for DVD and Blu-Ray. The removable tray at the front of the player apparently will support a DVD drive or Blu-Ray Drive
• It is significantly bigger than the A-110.

Obviously you will also get all the usual great features of a Network Media Tank including UPnP, Samba, NFS, BitTorrent, Usenet. Then web services such as YouTube, Vuze, and Revision 3 and finally the ability to play almost any media file you throw at it include 1080p videos.

Full specification after the jump.

The above image is from HomeTheatre.co.il and shows the C200 with a Blu-Ray Drive.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sony have just announced 4 new AV speakers, the STR-DA6400ES, STR-DH500, STR-DH700 and the STR-DH800.

The DLNA certified STR-DA6400ES network AV receiver expands the world of high definition home cinema. The 7.1 channel receiver has six HDMI inputs, full HD audio capability, and Digital Cinema Auto-Calibration to ensure the perfect final setup by fine-tuning the receiver’s output to your speakers, the room itself and even actual listening positions.

The other 3 receivers are to replace Sony’s existing STR-DG range.

The STR-DH500 is a 5.1 channel receiver with 3 HDMI inputs and 1 output (switcher).  For those looking for more features, the STR-DH700 offers 7.1 channel with 3 HDMI inputs and 1 output (repeater). In addition to STR-DH500’s specification, the STR-DH700 supports x.v.colour, deep colour and bi-amplification. At the top of the DH range is the STR-DH800, completing the specification with 4 HDMI inputs and 1 output (repeater) and high definition audio codecs Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master Audio.

The STR-DA6400ES will be available in stores in May.

The STR-DH500 and the STR-DH700 will be launched in May, while the STR-DH800 will go on sale in July.

No word on pricing yet.