Media Archives - Page 20 of 75

Slacker’s Hardware Tease

Two weeks after ramping up hardware pre-orders for their Portable Radio Player, internet radio provider Slacker has delayed product delivery from this week until late January. While delays are pretty common, it’s a bit unusual to pull back so close to shipment. (I’d call this manuveur a ‘Foleo‘, but I was actually looking forward to … Read more

Stream Xvid & Divx From Mac to Xbox

Speaking of media extenders, I’m digging the Xbox 360 Dashboard refresh in conjunction with the updated Connect360. By utilizing UPnP on Mac OS X, Connect360 mimics PC Windows Media Player functionality in streaming content to the Xbox. I’ve played with it before to send pics and music to my 360, but this is the first … Read more

SageTV HD Media Extender Review

Many Home Theater PC users have been clamoring for a silent, easy-to-setup media extender that can handle High Definition video – a plug & play box that lets users remotely access their HTPC content from any TV in their home. Today, SageTV is answering their customers desires by delivering a new HD Media Extender ($199) … Read more

MovieBeam Kicks The Bucket?

Several months after being acquired by video rental retailer Movie Gallery, rumor has it MovieBeam service is being shuttered next week. While I haven’t received a phone call or email notification (as a former customer), it wouldn’t surprise me if the service is killed – following in the footsteps of Akimbo’s dedicated hardware. MovieBeam, originally … Read more

Snapstream Unleashes Godzilla PC DVR For Big Business

With access to four tuners and 1.5 terrabytes of storage, I thought that I had the ultimate DVR setup. However, after seeing Snapstream’s Enterprise PC DVR in action, I’m envious of its capabilities and my home entertainment system suddenly seems wimpy. I don’t know how much Snapstream is charging, but if money grew on trees, I’d be all over this in a heartbeat.

With 10 tuners, one won’t worry about programming conflicts. And with 2 terrabytes of storage, it would mean that one can record 10 different channels, 24 hours a day for at least 8 days before worrying about archiving. Even, if one needed to save old content, the software enables video backup onto DVD.

While the specs had me drooling, the search capabilities were what I found most impressive. By taking advantage of the closed captioning system, SnapStream is able to search the transcripts of any program you record. This allows you to record a lot of junk and filter it for the information that you care about. Unlike the DVR in your living room, this isn’t limited to one monitor. SnapStream has designed the DVR to act as a server, allowing multiple users to search and stream videos from anywhere on a network.

Xbox 360 Movie Downloads Go International

I had assumed Canada would be the first non-US country licensed for Xbox 360 movie downloads, but it turns out the larger European market (starting with Britain, France, and Germany) are getting video rentals on their console about a year after the American launch. Initially, only Warner Brother movies will be offered – though they intend to make over 40 titles available this month. The Hollywood Reporter writes:

The Xbox Live Marketplace Video Store will provide both standard movies and high-definition versions for rent at the estimated retail price of 3 euros ($4.42) and 4.50 euros ($6.64), respectively. The European rollout of the Xbox Live Marketplace service has been staggered because of the complex licensing issues for video content in different regions and to allow time to make deals with local content providers.

It’s no secret I’m a fan of Xbox Live Marketplace… at least until Amazon and TiVo get onboard with HD content. Quality has always been excellent, even if selection hasn’t. Ordering is painless, though they’re still insisting on the “Microsoft Points” over dollars. I wonder how they’ll be handling those Euros?

Update: Canada is getting video downloads, as well, on December 10th. Current SD movie rentals will cost 460 Microsoft Points ($7.36 CAD) and HD flicks will be 610 Points ($9.75 CAD)

AOL Shifts (Video) Gears

There seems to be a consolidation of web video services in the works… presumably driven by the costs of hosting and managing these online efforts. AOL started by announcing plans to dump their higher-def streaming option (“Hi-Q”), saying the user count is: âvery small, so small that we havenât tracked it.â? Part of the challenge … Read more

Hulu’s Looking Good

I received my Hulu beta invite last night, and I’ve got to say the service is looking pretty good. If you recall, the Hulu video portal was originally conceived of by NBC and is now an independent entity with various studio and web relationships.

At this point, the Hulu site is pretty spartan (too much white space and sharp edges) and content organization options are basic (please give me a filter to hide video more than a decade old like Kojak and Dragnet), but having a significant amount of primetime multi-studio television shows in the stable is huge. I also appreciate the simple, Flash-based video playback interface over a stand-alone application (think Joost).

I’m having home networking probs this week, and was unable to transfer 30 Rock from the Series3 to the TiVo HD. Instead of troubleshooting, I caught “Cougars” via Hulu in fullscreen. The resolution wasn’t great for my 1440×900 Macbook Pro, but it was watchable. And the few commercials were relatively painless – a good excuse to check email in another Firefox tab. In fact, I also ended up viewing the pilot episode of USA’s Burn Notice – it’s on hiatus but Mari’s been raving about it. Maybe someone at Hulu will read this and post the remaining episodes…