How Paramount Stole Christmas

I hope my fellow Zatz Not Funny readers are having a wonderful holiday season. Among other goodies, Santa kindly left a few Blu-ray movies under our tree. One nice thing, in theory, is that each disc is bundled with a free digital copy. Since I’m heading out to Los Angeles for business next week, I … Read more

The Boxes of the Year

With the last holiday shopping weekend of 2009 upon us, it’s probably time to list my favorite home entertainment boxes of the year. This list is by no means exhaustive, these are just some of my faves – top picks, suitable for mainstream audiences and geeks alike. Keeping in mind, that for the second straight year, the Xbox 360 ($300) is still my #1 digital media powerhouse – the one box I cannot part with. Take my TiVo. Take my Roku. But you better come armed if you want this 360. Not only does it feature the best online gaming experience, it also boasts THE best Netflix instant streaming client – in addition to offering a variety of other media playback options.

Video

netflix-boxes

In the video category, there are two standouts for those sticking with physical media – and a higher quality of HD. But the snappy LG BD 390 set-top box (<$300) and the redesigned PS3 gaming console ($300) are much more than capable Blu-ray players. Both offer a variety of connected services (and 802.11n), including Netflix instant streaming. Those who have current or potential gamers in the house should probably look to the PS3 (and budget another 20 bucks for a remote), while everyone else would be quite happy with the Vudu-streaming LG. If you’re less picky and/or on a tighter budget with a higher tolerance for networking pain, look to the Samsung BD-P1600 (~$150) for similar features.

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Black Friday Shopping with Sony and Apple

While I avoided the lines at 4:00 in the morning, I couldn’t resist stopping by the local King of Prussia Mall later in the day yesterday to see how Black Friday was shaping up. Frankly, the mall wasn’t as crowded as I expected it to be, but there were still more than a few folks … Read more

Wikipedia joins Rotten Tomatoes on Vudu

Later today, Wikipedia movie content (and more) joins Rotten Tomatoes coverage on Vudu partner hardware. As a refresher, Vudu began life as a peer-to-peer movie streaming service via their dedicated hardware. After some layoffs, restructuring, and refinancing, they emerged with a hardware diversification strategy and a focus on supplemental web content. Additionally, the P2P streaming … Read more

The Popcorn Hour C-200 Review

Those of you who follow me on GeekTonic know that I spend a lot of time with HTPCs and all manner of media playback gadgets. When Syabas announced the new Popcorn Hour C-200 I was intrigued. From the specs it was clear that this device comes to the party prepared, touting the ability to play … Read more

Question of the Day: AppleTV with Blu-ray?

After reading rumors of new Macs with integrated Blu-ray drives for the umpteenth time, I posed a query to my Twitter followers: “Would you buy an AppleTV if it had a Blu-ray drive, too?” Because a computer or laptop with a Blu-ray playback capabilities doesn’t do much for me. I prefer to watch HD movies … Read more

Video Streaming Box Announcements of the Week

Netgear Entertainer Live ($150) The new Netgear Entertainer Live (EVA2000) was originally announced as a VuNow platform device at Netgear’s CES press conference back in January. At that time, I saw the unnamed Netgear product demo-ed using VuNow’s non-distinctive hardware, but has since been repackaged with some left over Netgear router enclosures. In addition to … Read more

HDFury 2: Converting HDMI to Analog

Over on Geek Tonic, I recently learned of the HDFury 2 – a small dongle designed to complete the HDCP handshake and convert a digital signal into a possibly more useful analog one. (Component or D-Sub 15, VGA) The folks who’d benefit most probably want to keep older projectors or HDTVs, which lack HDCP, in … Read more