via engadget: "DVR" added to Merriam-Webster dictionary

"These are just a few of the 100 words adopted by Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary for its Eleventh Edition. The publisher's announcement Wednesday also included long-time tech jargon DVR (digital video recorder)...

PCalchemy is giving away an Apple iPhone!

From PCAlchemy's newly launched newsletter "From time to time we will be announcing some great giveaways. We figured we would start things off with a bang and announce a drawing of a brand-new unopened 8GB iPhone. To qualify you simply need to make a purchase from pcalchemy.com between the dates of 7/1/2007 and 7/15/2007. The iPhone will be shipped UPS Next Day Air on Monday 7/18/2007, so some lucky person will be receiving a free 8GB iPhone on the 19th."

So if you were planning on picking up a few odds and ends for your pvr, this might be a good week to do it. :D

The always insightful Cringely speculates on Apple's H.264 encoder/decoder plans

"
Now comes the rumor I have heard, that I believe to be a fact, that has simply yet to be confirmed. I have heard that Apple plans to add hardware video decoding to ALL of its new computers beginning fairly soon, certainly this year.

Why Apple would do this is fairly clear to me, but first let's clarify what I mean by hardware video decoding, because it isn't implicitly the MPEG-2 format used in present-day DVDs. I'm not saying Apple's video-decoder chip won't also decode MPEG-2 (it may or may not -- I simply don't know), but the chip's primary codec is H.264, which is at the heart of both Apple's QuickTime software and its iTunes video downloading service."

Our favorite HTPC vendor PCalchemy (for a myriad of reasons!) officially launches their new line of expertly preconfigured Media Center Systems line of HTPCs.

*drool* ... Seth Miller describes to the Snapstream Blog his DVD and Movie Jukebox Setup in my Basement

After years of yearning to bring the true theater experience home, I have finally succeeded. My home now boasts a theater that will engulf you in the movie experience, tower over you with special not meant for mere television and bring a library of over 175 movies no more than the push of a button away, a jukebox of movies from TV and DVD. This theater was built on a limited budget, but boasts all the features that I’ve been dreaming of since I first heard someone say, “home theater”.

The PC is running Snapstream’s Beyond TV and Beyond Media. Since I am talking about the home theater experience, I will focus on Beyond Media, and in particular, a piece of pure programming genius, and every tech fiend’s best friend, the DVD library plug-in. This plug-in, allows me to store, organize and watch a library of over 175 movies and growing.

XboxMediaCenter 2.0.0 is released!

"Team-XBMC and The XBMC Project is proud to announce the release of XboxMediaCenter 2.0.0. XBox Media Center (XBMC) is an award winning, free and open source media player for the Xbox™ game-console. The XboxMediaCenter 2.0.0 point-release source code has now been set in our CVS. We consider that the current code in the XBMC CVS is as stable as a point-release should be. All XBMC users are highly encouraged to upgrade to this stable Xbox Media Center 2.0.0 point-release. Remember, the XBMC source code needs to be compiled with the XDK, and requires a modded Xbox to run. Our thanks goes out to everyone who has tested, reported bugs, and helped fix them in order to make this release possible.

There are many new features and functions that have been introduced since the 1.1.0 point-release, that we cannot list them all here. A few that are especially worth mentioning are; the enhanced GUI/skin-engine, the Project Mayhem III skin, DVD-Video menu/navigation support (with ISO/IMG image parsing), RAR/ZIP archive parsing, a new audio/music-player (PAPlayer) with crossfade, gapless playback and ReplayGain support, Karaoke CDG-file display, Xored Trainer Engine (gaming-cheats), XLink Kai (online-gaming) front-end, iTunes 6.x DAAP and UPnP-clients, and two surprise features; read-only support for FAT12/16/32 formatted USB Mass Storage Devices up to 4GB in size, and a brand new "skinnable" 3D visualizer.

For a full list of all features/functions and codecs/formats supported by XBMC please visit the "XBMC Features and Supported Formats/Codecs" page in our new online manual."

Sticky formely of HTPCnews has launched a new site called Missing Remote

We are very excited to announce the launch of missingremote.com. The site will prominently be a news site covering all aspects of the digital home. The website was developed to inform A/V enthusiasts of the daily events going on in the industry. Missingremote.com will cover product reviews, major trade events, product releases, and interesting forum discussion from around the web.

Based on a cutting edge CMS solution, missingremote.com features an intuitive layout that will allow any user easy access to the news they are most interested in. The site also features a discussion board ranging in topics from news discussion, to getting the most out of your home theater. Also available to the user community will be an extensive list of links that covers every aspect of the digital home.

hat tip HTPCnews

We wish sticky luck with his new endeavor and will be adding his site to our favorite RSS feed reader and encourage you to do the same :)

Open PVR from Neuros: cash money to owners who hack it

Neuros, makers of the coolest video-recording toys in the world, have just released their OSD, a fully open set-top box.

"What is the OSD?
The Neuros OSD is the first open source, Linux-based, embedded media center. It records video from any source and links your PC, entertainment center, and portables.

Free Your Media
The Neuros OSD was created to connect user's computer and entertainment worlds. Among many other things, this would allow users to watch video downloads and digital photo slideshows on TVs and listen to MP3s through their stereos. Previously the choices for doing this have been restricted to two approaches: all-in-one PC-based media centers and limited, closed "embedded" devices in various forms: PVRs, digital media adapters and streaming devices.

The OSD also enables users to take their video on the go and watch video on any device with non-DRM, standard MPEG-4 files. The OSD supports virtually all devices with data conversion or requiring extensive set-up. There are no subscription fees associated with the use of the OSD. "

tons of cool pictures and info on the official neuros OSD hacking wiki

see also the neuros blog and official Neuros home page

Found both these cool and quiet HTPC related links from HTPCnews

AnandTech reviews 21 silent / passively cooled video cards

"... The silent graphics card, a graphics card that is completely passively cooled, often using heat pipes and an oversized heatsink to eliminate the need for a fan to keep the GPU/memory cooled. The idea of a quiet or silent graphics card is appealing to many types of computer users, and many card manufacturers have realized this and are offering silent solutions. In the past, the only passively cooled video cards were slow entry level offerings. This is no longer true, and you can now get many mid range GPUs that offer reasonable performance without any noise output."

ExtremeTech builds a quiet, efficient Home Theater PC

"Nearly a year ago, we pieced together our Dual-Core Media Center PC. Since then, expansion of the HTPC ecosystem hasn't slowed one bit. The selection of faster and more versatile hardware such as motherboards, graphics cards, tuners, and cases has multiplied along with the availability of free and paid-for software solutions. Microsoft continues to refine its much-improved Windows Media Center Edition 2005. BeyondTV, GB-PVR, MythTV, and SageTV have maintained loyal followers of their own. In the realm of consumer electronics, more flat panel TVs include DVI and VGA inputs enabling them to handle double duty as both a TV and PC monitor."

Apple Announces iTV Video Streaming Box

"Going by the codeword of iTV, the box looks like a flattened Mac mini -- apparently it's around half the height -- and features a built-in power supply, USB 2.0, Ethernet, 802.11 "wireless component video", optical audio and HDMI ports, plus regular ol' RCA stereo audio ports. Controllable by the standard Apple remote, the iTV will come with an updated version of the Front Row interface that shares Front Row's smooth 3D graphics, but differs in that it has a menu on the right side of the screen. Apparently it'll work with both iTunes on both PCs and Macs, and will sell for $299."

Discuss Apple iTV in the forum

g808's commentary on the apple itv announcement

TiVo Series 3 for $800

It looks like the rumored benchmark price of $800 for the Series 3 TiVo could very well be the actual price. As seen in the picture above from Engadget, the October issue of Popular Mechanics has stated a TiVo Series 3 price of $800.

The always helpful g808 posted some cool links in the forum...

Yahoo's guide to the new Fall TV season makes a nice complement to the previous SnapStream Project Hoover post.

Romanoj has got Live TV streaming to MediaMVP working with BeyondTV This gives you another option besides GBPVR and SageTV if you want to utilize a MediaMVP as a network media extender or just add additional TV sets to your uber-HTPC setup.

The Mother of All Windows XP Tweaking Guides has more XP tweaks and config tips than you can shake a 100 page plus PDF at.... er... Helpful for getting the most out of an older system or streamlining your HTPC's performance.

Slate.com blog commentary The Myth of the Living-Room PC: Why you don't have an Apple iTV

"It's been nearly a year since Apple added downloadable videos and a couch-surfing remote to its lineup. How are those doing, Steve? One more question: How come none of my Apple-loving geek buddies have Macs in their living rooms? It's not just Apple that's failed to invade the living room."



UPDATENow there's finally an Apple iTV video device

The SlingBox has been in the news a lot lately with the release of the UK version of the SlingBlade which has DVB-T/Freeview support

Check out this video demonstration of slingbox on motorola "Q" phone

While we are on the subject of placeshifting some other options are the placeshifting module for SageTV 5 or Orb Streaming Software

*whistles* Check out the new look and functionality over at HTPCnews.com

Good job guys! They are certainly raising the bar for HTPC and DIY DVR enthusiast sites!

(note you may still see the old site if your DNS servers are slow to update)