Archive for the 'Video' Category
Gefen’s new 8×4 CAT-5 HDMI Matrix performs both matrix switching and signal extension. Installers seeking an easy, plug and play method of accessing multiple hi-def sources from a few extended displays will find it particularly helpful.
It links any eight high definition video and audio sources using the HDMI format to any four HDTVs or projectors. Users can access one of eight sources on each display, so four hi-def sources can be viewed on four displays at the same time. Users select which source they’d like to view by using the IR remote or RS-232 connection.
With four local HDMI outputs and CAT-5 connections, this Gefen Matrix allows all four displays to be connected either locally using standard HDMI cables, or remotely up to 150-feet (50m) away using two CAT-5 cables. At this distance, hi-def resolutions are supported at 1080p full HD. Resolutions to 1080i can extend over CAT-5 cables up to 300-feet (100m).
This versatile matrix supports HDCP-compliance making it perfect for integrating Blu-ray players, set-top boxes and gaming systems with today’s hi-def displays. The system provides HDMI cables for source connections, a power supply to drive performance, rack ears for easy mounting and IR remote.
Live TV requires you pay only for the other end of things, the hardware, just like you do for the Sling box. But, Equinux’s offering is cheaper and fits into any Mac. The TubeStick turns your Mac into a true DVR and allows you to export to your iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, or to iMovie for edit and burning. Last I heard, Sling don’t do that.
Oh, if you wish to watch your recorded content, then you’ll want TubeToGo for your iPhone. Another free offering from Equinux.
So, you can wait for “that” player or fling (get the pun? 
on over to Equinux and get moving today. Now for the rest of Namaste America.
EchoStar Technologies L.L.C. and Sling Media, subsidiaries of EchoStar Corporation, announced today that they won a “Best of CES” award from the editors of CNET (www.CNET.com) for the EchoStar SlingLoaded™ 922 HD DVR, the world’s first high definition digital video recorder that incorporates Sling Media’s patented placeshifting technology.
CNET, in cooperation with the Consumer Electronics Association, selected the EchoStar 922 SlingLoaded set-top box out of hundreds of entries from CES during a live CNET announcement in Las Vegas. The EchoStar 922 won in the home video category, besting the other finalists Panasonic and LG. Only 10 products were given the exclusive “Best of CES” recognition.
The EchoStar 922 is an entertainment centerpiece combining the best of video and IP technologies into a capacitive-touch set-top box. By integrating Sling Media’s Slingbox technology, the EchoStar 922 lets TV aficionados watch and control their favorite TV shows and sporting events from anywhere in the world via a broadband Internet connection on their laptop or mobile phone. Accessing multiple video sources, viewers will never run out of shows to watch. The EchoStar 922 features a massive 1 terabyte hard drive for up to 1,000 hours of storage and supports external hard drives.
The EchoStar 922 is a revolutionary departure from the traditional cable or satellite set-top box. Its touchpad remote control, which eliminates half the buttons of a standard remote control, gives users cursor-like navigation on their TV screen. With a slide of the thumb, viewers experience scroll-over activation of widget-like tiles and pop-up menus, all selectable by an underside index finger trigger.
The new user interface goes beyond traditional text-based user interfaces by using movie poster graphics, tiles or widget-based menus, and cursor-type navigation for a powerful yet simplified user experience that is highly adaptable to future applications.
EchoStar will deliver the EchoStar 922 to its first operator, DISH Network, in spring 2009 as the HD DuoDVR™ SlingLoaded™ ViP® 922, furnishing satellite TV customers with a break-through TV experience.
Selected by CNET’s unbiased expert editors, winners are recognized as having the hottest products in their respective technology categories for their unmatched innovation and creativity, and their ability to excite consumers and help them explore a world gone digital. CNET editors reviewed hundreds of entries, as well as scoured the 2009 International CES show floor for products to consider for the prestigious award.
The ten categories include car tech; cell phones and smart phones; computers and hardware; digital photo and video; gaming; GPS; home audio; home video; MP3 and portable video players; and televisions. A video of the winners and finalists showcasing their technologies can be found at http://www.cnet.com/ces.
Worn like a pair of glasses, the new AV310 is the first video headset of its kind to feature the full 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio; while the AV230XL breaks new ground by using OLED (organic LED) screen technology for an incredibly bright, high contrast display that uses less power.
The release of the two headsets brings the full Vuzix range to four models. The AV920 is the top of the range video headset, and the VR920 is a virtual reality headset aimed at the gaming market which adds motion tracking and 3D capability to 80 PC titles and online games such as World of Warcraft, Second Life and Call of Duty.
The two new products are designed to complement a range of devices with TV Out capability including the Apple iPod range, MP4 players, games consoles such as Wii, and many of the latest mobile phones from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung and HTC.
In fact, connectivity and access to content is now at such a level that most consumers across Europe could sit and watch on their personal devices ‘cinema sized’ video from YouTube, BBC iPlayer or other on-demand TV channels using a Vuzix headset.
Announcing the breakthrough new products, Vuzix founder and CEO Paul Travers said: “There is increasing demand and interest in this space. As screens in our homes get bigger, the screens we use on the move have stayed roughly the same size.
“With Vuzix iWear you can get the full big-screen cinema experience, in a device that is small enough to carry in your pocket. And the range of products you can connect to is increasing all the time as more and more mobile phones are released with video out capability.”
The new Vuzix models are both shipped with an approved “Made for iPod” cable that connects to the full range of iPod devices – including the Classic, the Nano and the Touch; and also to the iPhone. Leads for other leading handsets such as Nokia’s N95 and N96 are also included within the pack.
The AV230XL and the AV310 Widescreen are also the first Vuzix models to run using one standard AA battery, further aiding convenience, flexibility and portability.
The AV230XL will initially retail at £129.99 and the AV310 Widescreen at £149.99. Both are available now and are being released at special introductory launch prices that will be held until Xmas.
Stockists include 3 retail stores, Firebox.com, Play.com, Applestore.com, Amazon.com or direct from www.vuzix.co.uk.
Product features include: Read the rest of this entry »
The new Madrid Cabinet in Natural Cherry finish
The Madrid is a sleek, fully assembled triple-wide cabinet whose clean, minimalist lines recall the strong modern design influences so compelling in mid-twentieth century furnishings. Its contemporary design will appeal to customers looking for a simple, sophisticated solution to their A/V needs that also complements their décor.
Designed, engineered and manufactured by a company on the forefront of the industry, the Madrid is unique in the depth and breadth of its features. For example, it provides ample storage for TVs plus up to five other components (including a center-channel speaker), a pull-out drawer for DVDs and CDs, easy accessibility, good ventilation, adjustable shelves, raceways for concealing and managing wires, and easy compatibility with IR remotes. The understated wood base conceals non-marking casters that make Madrid easy to install, move, service and clean.
The Madrid is also a model of quality construction. Measuring 70 inches wide by 22 inches high by 20.25 inches deep, the cabinet presents three compartments accessible using sliding bypass doors with warm, bronze-tinted glass panels that permit IR signals to pass through to the A/V components inside. Each unit comes with a classic Natural Cherry finish, or a more Euro-contemporary Wenge finish on open-grain oak veneer. The adjustable shelves each support 50 lbs. and the wood top supports up to 250 lbs., making it a practical choice for virtually all components. Sliding rear panels provide easy access to components from the back.
The Madrid is available now in Natural Cherry from Salamander Designs dealers at a suggested price of $1,499. It will be available in Wenge later this year.
With today’s traditional workstation model pricing, many organizations can only afford to deploy professional graphics solutions to select designers and engineers, leaving a significant portion of the workforce with sub-optimal products. This is about to change as NVIDIA Corp. announced today NVIDIA®® Quadro®® FX 470, the first integrated professional motherboard GPU, and NVIDIA Quadro FX 370 Low Profile (Quadro FX 370 LP), an entry-level Quadro graphics boards for small form factor systems.
Honoring NVIDIA’s commitment to tailor its Quadro professional line to the specific needs of the end user, the Quadro FX 470 and Quadro FX 370 LP GPU deliver high performance and flexibility at entry-level pricing for computer-aided design (CAD) and digital content creation (DCC) applications.
“In today’s competitive global marketplace, engineers, traders, designers and power office users demand more functionality and reliability from their desktop computing solutions,” said Jeff Brown, general manager, Professional Services, NVIDIA. “The Quadro FX 470 and the Quadro FX 370 LP are precisely tested, certified and designed to maximize productivity and deliver the cost-effective, professional-quality solution these users require on a daily basis.”
Increasing performance and reliability at a ground-breaking price, both systems are certified for key DCC and CAD applications from independent software vendors such as Autodesk and Adobe. Designed to fit seamlessly in a space-saving configuration, the Quadro FX 370 LP GPU has a MSRP at $149 USD and offers professional graphics performance with fanless cooling for a quieter work environment. The Quadro FX 470 GPU expands end customer access to professional graphics by enabling systems to achieve a price point under $700 USD.
“The Quadro FX 470 integrated chipset is a landmark achievement for professional graphics,” said Tom Lin, general manager, Server Business Unit, AsusTek COMPUTER Inc. “By offering Quadro FX 470 graphics in our new ASUS TW100-E5 iQuadro workstation, we are giving our customers an entirely new way to get the performance advantages of a Quadro GPU at entry-level pricing. It’s a powerful graphics option that we believe the CAD and design communities will eagerly embrace.”
Delivering the quality and reliability that the market expects from NVIDIA Quadro solutions, the Quadro FX 470 motherboard GPU and Quadro FX 370 LP feature 128-bit precision graphics pipeline, 32-bit floating point precision, filtering and blending, advanced color compression and early z-culling for improved bandwidth and rendering efficiency, and full-scene antialiasing. Additional features include:
Industry-First Unified GPU Architecture – Dynamically allocates geometry, shading and pixel processing power for high performance in OpenGL, Microsoft DirectX 10 applications
NVIDIA CUDA™ Technology – Revolutionary parallel computing processor architecture exposed through an extended C language environment, and a tool suite for high-performance visualization
Shader Model 4.0 Support – Enables ultra-realistic, real-time visualization applications
NVIDIA nView®® Advanced Display Software: The nView hardware and software technology combination delivers maximum flexibility for single-large display or multi-display options and provides unprecedented end-user control of the desktop experience
I/O Scalability and Performance – Extensive I/O slot support enables peripherals like SAS and dual GbE, which lengthen platform life cycle and performance
The Quadro FX 470 motherboard GPU is available from NVIDIA System Integrator partners. The Quadro FX 370 LP GPU is available today, with a MSRP of $149 USD. For more information on NVIDIA Quadro technologies and products, please visit: www.nvidia.com/quadro.
PumpOne introduces iPump Total Body™, the first in a series of workout applications for iPhone and iPod touch available through Apple’s iTunes App Store. This ultimate on-the-go video, image and audio personal trainer contains three components, WORKOUT, LOG and INSPIRE, that not only coaches users through complete workouts, but also allows them to keep track of sessions and instantly send progress logs to friends, family or medical professionals.
“Everybody would love the luxury of their own live personal trainer, but not everyone can afford it,” says Craig Schlossberg, President of PumpOne. “iPump is the next best thing. The clear exercise videos, crisp fitness images and quick intuitive interface show a user exactly what exercises to perform, in what order and with the proper intensity. Plus, you can enjoy your music while training with the application.”
iPump Total Body is made up of three levels; Foundation, Intermediate and Comprehensive, each with three gym workouts, totaling nine. The exercises in each workout target all major muscle groups and include workout-specific intensity charts showing reps, sets and rest intervals. This easy to use program removes the mystery from performing effective workouts while helping users gain strength, lose weight and increase endurance.
With the world’s largest exercise image and video library, PumpOne’s content was created specifically for mobile devices that do not get in the way of a training session. The iPump series will contain fitness programs from all areas of training; Strength, Cardio, Flexibility, Sports, Yoga, Pilates and Physical Therapy. Available soon are iPump Abs & Core, Golf, Pulse, Pilates and Office Stretch. These interactive state-of-the-art fitness programs are exclusively distributed through the desktop iTunes application or directly from the App Store on a user’s iPhone or iPod touch.
iPump Total Body is now available for the introductory price of $2.99 from the iTunes App store or by going to http://www.PumpOne.com/ipump/totalbody.
PNY Technologies and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announce the launch of a new 2GB USB preloaded with Sony Pictures’ 80’s comedy classic, GHOSTBUSTERS starring Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd. This marks the first time for the release of a full length movie via a USB flash drive and will enable consumers to watch the film with one simple click on their PC or Laptop. The PNY GHOSTBUSTERS USB will be available from Argos stores nationwide from now, just ahead of the 25th anniversary year of Ghostbusters in 2009.
Stefanie Summerfield – UK & Nordic Sales and Marketing Director for PNY Technologies said “As a market leader in the USB market, PNY’s focus is to offer consumers added value by providing enjoyable blockbuster content on their USB. Standard features of a PNY 2GB USB stick include 12 hours of video play, 33 hours of music and 1080 pictures. This is all in addition to getting a preloaded movie on the USB flash drive.”
Andy Armstrong, UK, Managing Director for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment stated, “Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is delighted to partner with PNY to offer the first full length movie preloaded on a USB flash drive and ready to play on your PC/Laptop. We are committed to giving the consumer more choice in how to experience their movies either at home or on the go.”
The PNY 2 GB USB with Ghostbusters will be available in stores from now. For more information please visit www.pny.eu
In addition, Harman Kardon is introducing its HK 3490 and HK 3390 stereo receivers, which combine superlative sound quality with flexible operation, including video switching for use in home entertainment systems, and iPod and portable music player connectivity.
Adding to their appeal, all five receivers have a distinctively elegant, refined appearance, featuring a gloss-black top panel and a dark graphite lower panel, all accented by soft white illumination.
Following is an overview of key features and technologies of the new Harman Kardon® audio/video receivers.