News Archive
Wed 22 March 2006
More than NECessary projectors
Boy do these projector mean business! Offering a brightness of 4000 ANSI Lumens for the NP2000 and 3500 ANSI Lumens for the NP1000 and producing one of the largest ranges of image size currently available, varying from a 30” – 500+” diagonal for rear projection applications, these two new NEC projectors are welcome contenders for the home cinema market. With five lens options, which are installed using a bayonet fitting, make swapping a lens as easy as changing a light bulb. The NP series also has Vertical and manual lens shift allowing a flexible projector placement, from a distance of 2.5 to 68.5 feet.
Trying to save up for one of these? Why not work with what you’ve got already by reading 10 Upgrades to your Home Cinema without spending a penny!
Tue 21 March 2006
Telewest: Christoper Columbus of HDTV
Britain's first high definition (HD) TV service is now available to over four and a half million homes, as Telewest launches its new personal video recorder (PVR), called TVDrive. Subscribe to the TVDrive set-top box can watch free HD programmes from BBC Worldwide with pay-per-view movies expected soon. The HD programmes are offered via the cable company's TV-on-demand service, called Teleport, which provides instant access to a huge library of viewing at the touch of a button.
TVDrive enables viewers to pause live TV and then resume watching from where they left off. With hard drive storage for around 80 hours of TV, viewers simply press one record button to save their favourite shows. And three tuners mean more flexibility than with a Sky+ box, as up to two channels can be recorded whilst watching a third.
TV Drive costs £10 per month for customers taking the company's top digital TV package, or £15 per month otherwise. There are no large purchasing costs and maintenance is included in the monthly fee. Telewest has partnered with the Dixons Store Group to enable consumers to order TVDrive in Dixons and Currys stores within Telewest areas.
For more info on HDTV see: High definition or definitely hype?
Tue 21 March 2006
“Our Room PC”? more like closet room PC
The new “Our Room PC” (ORPC) by ECS embraces the convergence concept of the media centre PC: one box that does everything. As a PC, DVD player, DVD recorder, a PVR, and a 24-bit audio system and marketed as a media server, delivering digital entertainment to every room it ticks all the right ‘as standard’ boxes of a media centre PC. Under the bonnet it’s powered by a Viiv-compliant Intel Pentium D processor with the 945G chipset running Windows Media Center. It can shift data at a rate of 100Mb/sec plus with its SATA hard drive easily accommodating the bandwidth required for HDTV. Not a bad effort except for one issue: look at the state of it! Although not bad looking I really would not be thrilled about putting the ORPC in my front room. Please would someone build a media centre PC with Silverstone case please or at least rip-off one of their ideas, specifically the LC09! The ORPC should be available in selected markets by the end of this month. No price as of yet.
Mon 20 March 2006
‘BT Vision’ sees broadband TV in Autumn
BT’s new IPTV service it's set to be the world's first service offering digital terrestrial TV with on-demand film, TV and music programming. The service which will be called BT Vision, is due to launch in autumn and you can register now to be one of the first to experience it. BT Vision will be delivered to the home via a Microsoft platform and a Philips set-top box, with the network enabled by the BT Hub. The hub will also allow wireless networking for PCs and laptops, as well as up to five simultaneous VoIP calls at the same time.
Want to know more about IPTV? Read: Super-cali-fragilistic-expi-IPTV
