Posts in Home AV
Redefining the meaning of all-in-one
Philip Wong | Mar 04, 2008
In an ideal world, there should be a wonder box that does everything under the sun. Perhaps something like Doraemon; a Japanese anime robot cat and his magical pocket with its endless supply of gadgets and tools. Well, we may be light years away from such amazing technology, but SE2 Labs has this uber-cool super entertainment machine that looks like a mini computer server.
Dubbed ITC One, it packs an Xbox 360, HD personal video recorder, surround sound processor, digital audio amplifier, 4.3-inch touchscreen, iPod dock and remote control system all in a single box. Pricing-wise, you will need to fork out a good US$24,995 that will probably entitle you to a top-notch home theater system. But hey, if you want something retro and compact, this is definitely the one.
Via Chip Chick | Photo credit: SE2 Labs
| Editors' note:
Here is a quick update on what's inside one of these US$25,000 boxes, according to SE2 Labs' latest press release.
DirecTV HD DVR, Dish Network DVR or national cable providers’ DVR, AMX NetLinx control system, Bryston pre-amplifier/processor, IcePower digital amplifiers, Vidikron video processor, Apple Video iPod dock, proprietary remote control, Microsoft Xbox 360, Blu-ray drive, media center, Nintendo Wii, Transparent Cable power conditioning, Transparent cabling and cable harness, and an anti-noise/vibration system. Where's the kitchen sink, man? |
When will Toshiba put out a Blu-ray player?
David Carnoy | Mar 04, 2008
Personally, I don't really care how Nishida spends his free time, but I am kind of curious what his thought process was when he decided to go to war with Sony. If you remember, over a year ago there was actually a moment when Toshiba and Sony were in negotiations to settle, but in the end they just couldn't come to an agreement on a unified format. I would have asked Nishida whether he regrets not making a deal earlier--and why he thought he could win in the first place. I also would have inquired what his plans were for a standalone Toshiba Blu-ray player. I mean, if you're going to ask him what Toshiba's plans are for life after HD-DVD, you've got to ask if a Blu-ray player is in the works--especially a BD-ROM drive for Toshiba's laptops. Make him answer the question, right?
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Solid Snake challenges Blu-ray's capacity
Philip Wong | Mar 03, 2008
"640K ought to be enough for anybody." That's exactly what Bill Gates claimed about program memory way back in 1981, and now we have a game which has already exceeded Blu-ray's 50GB storage capacity. Japanese game designer Hideo Kojima, one of the prominent figures behind the highly anticipated Metal Gear Solid 4, was lamenting on the storage bottleneck during a recent interview. This has resulted in certain in-game features being taken offline to fit onto a single Blu-ray.
Just think about it. If this is the future to come, we may just be heading toward eventual information overload or meltdown. On second thought, does that mean Blu-ray is already obsolete? Geez, it barely took off and now we're already running out of disc space!
Via Joystiq | Photo credit: Konami
Make your Wii region-free without modding
Reuben Lee | Feb 29, 2008
Like the GameCube Freeloader, the latest Wii Freeloader will allow Wii gamers to play games from any region on their consoles. According to Wii News, the Freeloader Wii is easy to use. Users have to simply insert the disc into the console and wait for it to load, then eject the disc when the drive stops. Any game disc from other regions can then be loaded and played.
Currently, all unmodded Wii consoles in the market are region-locked, so only games from the same region can be played on that machine. To play games from other regions, region-free gaming has to be enabled on the Wii and this usually requires hardware modding on the console, but that will void the manufacturer's warranty.
Although the Wii Freeloader does not require any modding on the Wii, it is not officially recognized by Nintendo. And like the GameCube, Nintendo may just release a new firmware update for the Wii to disable the Freeloader. The Wii Freeloader is expected to retail for US$19.99.
Via Wii News
Photo credit: Wii News
Samsung plasma goes 3D
Philip Wong | Feb 29, 2008
Just when you thought they would have run out of ideas reinventing the wheel, Samsung is back with a pair of 3D plasma TVs in 42- and 50-inch screen sizes. The results of a collaboration between the Korean electronics giant and game specialist Electronics Arts, these new panels are designed to deliver so-called "best" (yawn) gaming experience and feature a staggering 1,000,000:1 contrast currently claimed only by Sony's petite OLED TV.
Mumbo jumbo aside, these will ship with the usual icings such as HDMI 1.3 and USB terminals, as well as Samsung's proprietary DNIE+ video-processing engine. We sure hope they can live up to the hype and elevate big-screen gaming to a whole new level. Yummy.
Via Akihabara News | Photo credit: Samsung
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