Dave Zatz

Hands On With Harmony 550

I ordered the Logitech Harmony 550 while Amazon was running a recent rebate, so I’ve only had it on hand for a day… However I already feel like it’s $75 (after rebate) well spent.

Compared to the 520, the 550 seems to have a better build quality. It’s more solid, the buttons respond better, and the back has a nice rubberized coating. I thought the 520 looked pretty sharp, and the 550 looks even better. The 550 adds a few more buttons than the 520. As with the 520, Logitech kindly packaged 8 Duracell batteries — four for now, four for later.

TiVo Sackpack Giveaway

I’m still doing a little house cleaning and reorganization… I came across a TiVo sackpack that I picked up at DigitalLife in October – it needs a good home. Leave a comment today, and I’ll randomly pick a winner tomorrow. Over the next few months, I promise to give out much cooler prizes… such as … Read more

Windows Vista: Stream Media PC to PC

In case you hadn’t heard (yeah, right), Windows Vista is now shipping. One of the more interesting features is Windows Media Player’s ability to stream media, not only to Xbox 360s and Media Extenders, but to other LAN PCs running Vista. Though WMP 11 has been available on XP for some time, this particular feature is not supported. Yes, I know, iTunes enables library sharing as well.

Microsoft writes:

You can share nearly any digital media file in your Player library, including protected Windows Media files that you have downloaded from online stores. To share a file in your library, the original file must be stored in one of your monitored folders.

PVRWire Shutting Down

AOL has decided to shutter PVRWire and several other blogs in the Weblogs, Inc network on 1/31. According to Jason Calacanis, former head of Weblogs, it sounds like their blogs need a million monthly page views to “scale” as a viable business model. Not only is there plenty of room for long-tail content, but I … Read more

Stephen Colbert Documents The Evolution Of AT&T

Deal of the Day: Half Price Harmony 880

Amazon has the Harmony 880 on sale for $155.49 plus a $30 rebate good through 1/29. The 880 retails for $250. Instead of macros, Harmony remotes group related functions into activities. For example: Hit ‘Play DVD’ and Harmony will turn on the TV, set it to the proper input, and power up the DVD player. The 880 has a color screen and internal rechargeable battery with docking cradle. As with all Harmony remotes, the 880 has access to a huge database of devices — before we moved, we had 6xx models controlling our Lutron lights and projector, in addition to the standard stuff. I currently use the 880 in the den to operate my TiVo Series3 and Xbox 360. Download network icons at Squareworld to setup soft keys for your favorite channels.

My review copy of Toast 8 Titanium arrived this week. Unfortunately, my only Mac is still running 10.3.9… and is not supported. I expect to have this rectified (running Tiger on something) in the next few weeks. Until then, check out iLounge’s review of the TiVoToGo features. Jeremy seemed generally pleased with Roxio’s ability to transfer TiVo shows for burning and playback, though he took issue with conversion times and the 320×240 output (same as Windows TTG) when converting for the iPod and PSP.

Toast 8 Titanium lists for $100, though prices are coming in under $50 after rebate in many cases — it pays to shop around. If you buy in, be sure to download the TiVo DVD menu theme. I’m still holding out hope that the TiVo Transfer portion of the app will be given away by TiVo/Roxio at some point. Though, for those who want to save a few bucks, the unofficial TiVoDecode Manager is free and will transfer, decrypt, and convert.

USB Memory Stick Giveaway

I’m doing a little house cleaning today and discovered a collection of USB memory sticks in need of a good home. Memory cards and sticks are often given out to press preloaded with vendor info. We’ve got two 256MB sticks courtesy of ShowStoppers, and 64MB each from Nortel and TiVo. Just leave a comment indicating … Read more