Review Horizon

DirecTV finally launched their multi-room DVR solution under the name of “Whole Home DVR” and it offers, you guessed, the possibility to share your recordings amongst multiple DVR boxes. The service charge will be an extra $3 on top of your existing bill, well worth in my opinion. Hopefully, the other companies will follow soon. I recently upgraded to a VIP 922 DVR from Dish Network and this feature would come really handy, especially with the 1TB harddrive.

Check the launching video after the break.

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Good news, everybody. Popbox Media Center is available at Amazon for pre-order for only $129. While no definite date is provided for shipping, the fact that Amazon makes it available means we on’t have to wait too long. As usual, expect an in-depth review here as soon as I will receive it. Look after the break for supported media formats and detailed specifications. Read More…

The little box that made waves in January takes the next step. Yesterday, Syabas launched the software development platform for Popbox, the Popbox SDK 1.0. Go ahead and register here, if you think you have what it takes to become a Popbox developer.

The popbox SDK 1.0 enables anyone. popbox delivers the multimedia of the web and home network to the HDTV. The popbox Platform enables anyone to Read More…

I ordered the Dish Network VIP922 ( VIP 922 ) as soon as I read the announcement that it is available. The current upgrade price is $200, for existing customers, not sure how much for the new customers. The technician was half an hour late, not a big deal and the first thing he wanted to do was to check the dish placement and connections. It looks like, since my last Dish Network installation about two years ago they changed the installing codes and the guy wanted to see if everything is in order, expecting his supervisor to inspect the site later.

1. Installation:

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After hearing the news about VIP922 availability, I hurried up and placed a call with Dish Network to get mine. After being on hold for about 10 minutes, one of their CSRs replied, but he didn’t seem to know anything about a new DVR, so I was put on hold again while he probably consulted with his colleagues/manager. This time it lasted (I wrote lusted and the spell checker of course didn’t get it ) just a couple of minutes, he found about the new equipment and after the standard identity check he proceeded to take my order.

Now, I have two VIP722 on my account for the living room and bedroom, so he wanted to know the serial number for the one I want to replace. Apparently they don’t have that info readily available, so I had to log-in into my account to get it (Don’t call them if you don’t have this info). I wanted to replace my main receiver, because the monthly DVR fee will be higher if you have the VIP922 as a secondary receiver.

OK, the next step was the costs. It was announced that, for the existing customers the fee per VIP922 will vary between $200-$400. I guess I was lucky, I got the minimum payment, because I’ve seen people online complaining about being asked for $400. I have been a Dish Network client for about 6 years, grandfathered a dishHD Absolute with locals and together with two VIP722 DVRs I am paying around $60/months. Good thing they didn’t ask me to change my cheap plan (which is not available anymore). I resisted heroically until now.

So, anyway, I had to pay the $200 upgrade fee. On top of that, they wanted to charge me an extra $90 for the technician visit which apparently is required to install this receiver. I tried to convince the CSR to just send it to me to no avail, apparently the software system just didn’t let him do that. Good thing the CSR was a nice guy and advised me how to “trick the system” – add service fee of $6 on my monthly bill and cancel it after the service is performed. The cancellation fee will be $25, but it will still be much cheaper than the $90 quoted.

All in all, everything went smooth and I should expect the new DVR sometime Saturday afternoon. Stay tuned for an in-depth review to follow.

I promised to blog about my HTPC software configuration, so here it is:

As we all know, nothing works anymore without software, as buggy and inefficient some of it it.  But I am here now, to talk a little bit about that software used specifically for entertainment. I was always a fan of Windows Media Center, starting with its earliest incarnations inside Windows XP, but we have come a long way since then…not necessarily in terms of what is offered out of the box (although Netflix and Internet TV integration are something to write home about), but especially in terms of plug-ins.

Talking about plug-ins, as a personal opinion, we would see way more if Microsoft would move their corporate might and create a Marketplace for Media Center, but it may be that WMC did not penetrate in terms of usage as much as an iPhone would do, and probably never will. It is just us, the technology aficionados…

OK, enough ranting. I will start by saying that I don’t use WMC for watching TV, so no TV tuners are involved. For TV, I have a VIP 722 Dish Network DVR that serves me well. And, when VIP 922 will come, I will get that as well. My current software configuration is oriented around consuming the media I already have (my legal purchased DVDs stored on a server for convenience), my music, family movies and pictures and access to any media available online (HULU, YouTube and Netflix mostly). Lately, I found WMC plug-ins to access Facebook pictures as well, so life is pretty good.

Here is a brief description:

Operating System – Windows 7 Home Premium, 32bit. The reason for choosing 32bit instead of 64bit is due to compatibility issues many of the plug-ins still have with 32bit. Because I don’t have that much time to tinker around, I choose the safe path.

Windows 7 Codecs – Windows 7 codec pack offered by Shark007. Nothing else! Shark007 covers everything I need in terms of codecs, from DIVX to MKV containers with H264 and DTS, including the dreaded MOV format from some of the current digital cameras. I never found any format that this plug-in pack won’t play. Alternative hardware accelerated (DXVA) H264 codecs are also provided to be used by all players.

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Media aggregator – mediabrowser is by far the best (in my opinion) plugin for WMC. It takes your recorded, digital or ripped media and presents it in several absolutely Read More…

Intro:

Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse ran up the clock…except the Philips NP1100/37 is not merely a clock even if it looks like one. And if the mouse keeps running away, we’ll conclude that he’s a low-tech mouse with no love for gadgets (and for some weird reason, I remembered that the French translate all the tech words including mouse)

Well, before I bought the Aluratek internet radio for my bedroom, I actually got my appetite opened up by Philips NP1100/37. The long, pompous and official title is “Philips NP1100/37 Streamium Network Music Player with 3.0″ B&W Display” and it is exactly that. It streams music from the internet via the included Rhapsody music service (subscription required). It also streams music from any DLNA server on your network (Windows Media Player is one example, PS3 media server is another one). It also does a glorious job at streaming internet radio stations (over 10,000 at the last count). All these might features come with a puny little remote control. But we’ll talk later about that. Let’s get into some details. Read More…

I suppose I am old fashion, but I like to listen to radio, I always did. I still remember being a kid and listen in the dark at Radio Free Europe with my family when the electricity was cut of by the government to save money. But that was a different country and different life. The nostalgia remained though. So I looked around on the internet to buy a radio that would receive international stations (I already have a Sony World Band Receiver ICF_SW7600GR – who the heck comes up with these names?) which is a very good receiver in its own right, but the reception sucks in my city and anyway, they are very few foreign radio stations that broadcast strong enough to receive them in SOCAL.

Enough ranting, I managed to find two different internet radio receivers, a Philips NP1100/37 and an  Aluratek AIRMMF01F (another weird name). I bought both of them! The last one is the subject of today’s review. Read More…