Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Rather than taking the circular approach, Sony’s choosing more traditional design models to follow with its latest trio of all-in-one PCs. As you can see in the gallery over at Engadget HD, the larger of the two were actually mounted up on swing-arms in the outfit’s CEDIA booth, essentially acting as monitors for watching TV / playing PS3. The small guy didn’t do a whole lot for us, but the two hung up on the wall were pretty svelte. See for yourself, won’t you?

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs, Storage

Niveus Media came to this year’s CEDIA locked and loaded, and while most typical consumers won’t look too far past the sub-$2,000 Vail system, those with cash to spare and colleagues to impress will certainly appreciate the Core i7-powered $19,999 Pro Series n9 media center PC. The rig setup on the show floor had said HTPC connected to four dual-CableCARD boxes via USB ($1,500 a pop), giving it the ability to record eight HD shows simultaneously while streaming HD movie clips to eleven other Media Center Extenders (without a hiccup, might we add). The mid-range Denali was also on hand, and Blu-ray drives were found across the board. We also spent a tick with the new v1.5 Niveus Movie Library, which very neatly enabled us to surf to any media stored locally or on the networked 16TB Cargo Media Server. Even if you can’t afford it, this stuff is still worth a look — check it all out here at Engadget HD.

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Filed under: Desktops, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Who knows if Popcorn Hour really is still working on a couple more HD media streamers, but its latest one is definitely up for pre-order. First whispered about a few months back, the $215 A-110 is a revamped A-100 that adds 2.5- / 3.5-inch SATA HDD and USB Slave functionality, HDMI 1.3a support (for full HD audio pass-through) and an optical S/PDIF to replace the coaxial S/PDIF socket. For those of you looking for even more flexibility, you can take a look at the outfit’s new B-110 Baseline. This “Home Theater Motherboard” arrives with the media enthusiast in mind, boasting support for HDMI 1.3a, optical / coaxial S/PDIF connectors, four USB 2.0 ports and a mini-ITX form factor. Both pieces should ship out within two to four weeks, but considering just how sticky things were when the A-100 launched, we’d tack on a few weeks to that estimation just in case.

[Thanks, Stephen and Jeff]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

As the release date for ZeeVee’s ZvBox draws near (we’re hearing July 31st), the company is out and about in an attempt to drum up demand as the run-up to its launch progresses. During CONNECTIONS 2008, ZeeVee was in attendance with a ZvBox on display, and aside from snapping a few telling photographs, the folks over at eHomeUpgrade were also able to capture a couple videos to give you an early feel of its capabilities (and limitations). We don’t have to tell you where the goods are, but if you’re new here, that read link down there is a good place to start.

[Via SlashGear]

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Filed under: Desktops, Media PCs

Whether this gem is as sexy as OrigenAE’s LCD-equipped chassis is certainly debatable, but there’s no denying at least some level of hotness here. The towering Tyr X2000 enclosure was designed to keep your gaming / HTPC components safe and net favorable glances from those privileged enough to enter your abode. The unique design enables owners to access optical / hard drives from the sides, and there’s plenty of room to store those Family Guy re-runs with six hot-swappable RAID SATA bays. You’ll also find a few more absurd specifications such as room for eight PCI cards, enough fans to cool a small dorm room and support for a water cooling system. Mum’s the word on pricing, but c’mon, you can’t look at this thing and honestly believe it’ll be anything near cheap.

[Via HotHardware]

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Filed under: Desktops, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Your options are fairly limited when scouring the market for a twin-CableCARD HTPC, but thanks to a new partnership between Cannon PC and Microsoft, yet another rival will be jousting for your business. Here soon, the outfit will be offering its Home and Pro A/V series Media Center PCs with dual CableCARDs pre-installed, and if you’re willing to wait a touch longer, a quad-CableCARD model will also be available. Oh, and if that chassis above looks strangely familiar, that’s because it is: Cannon has simply grabbed OrigenAE’s famed shell, painted it black and slapped its own logo up there (though we aren’t complaining or anything). The pictured EX line is just one of the many families with the new functionality, so head on over to the company’s website if you’re interested in shelling out.

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Filed under: Desktops, Media PCs

While Shuttle’s KPC most certainly wasn’t aimed at the enthusiast in the crowd, its newest XPC definitely is. The XPC G5 6801M gets going with an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ processor, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a 320GB hard drive, LG’s GGC-H20L Blu-ray / HD DVD combo drive, ATI’s 256MB HD 3450 graphics card, a DVB-T tuner, 25-in-1 multicard reader and 7.1-channel audio output. Moreover, you’ll find gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, a slew of USB / eSATA ports, DVI / VGA out (DVI-HDMI adapter thrown in) and a bundled remote to make your life even easier. If you’re digging where this is going, you can latch on to one of these boxes for €1,091 ($1,727), and if you’ve turned a cold shoulder to HD DVD, a BD-only unit can be had for €167 ($264) less.

[Via Bios Magazine]

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Filed under: HDTV, Media PCs, Storage

Okoro Media Systems has been offering up well-spec’d HTPCs for quite some time, but it has finally seen fit to jump on the flash-based storage bandwagon. The firm’s new ZX series of Extreme Digital Entertainment Systems gets going with the OMS-ZX100, which comes standard with a 32GB SSD (for the OS and such) and a 1TB HDD for media storage. Moreover, you’ll find a 3.0GHz Core 2 Extreme QX6850 processor, 3GB of DDR2 RAM, NVIDIA’s 256MB GeForce 8600 GT graphics card, Blu-ray / HD DVD playback and your choice of “any automotive color” on the chassis. ‘Tis a shame it costs $5,995 to even join the ZX100 club, but look to spend even more if you’re hankering for a built-in CableCARD tuner and WiFi adapter.

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Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Those on the hunt for a pre-fabricated HTPC can’t complain about a lack of choices these days, but if you’ve yet to be taken aback by anything out there, why not give Mesiro’s Merium a glance? The standout feature here isn’t the 1.66GHz Core 2 Duo T5500 processor, 250GB internal HDD, dual-layer DVD burner, GMA950 graphics accelerator, WiFi, 5-in-1 multicard reader or the bundled MCE remote — oh no, it’s the interchangeable chassis covers (weird, right?). Yep, you can swap out the covers on this rig whenever you feel the urge, ensuring that there’s a case for every occasion. Unfortunately, those in America who’d like to get in on this won’t appreciate the €999 ($1,578) price tag, and those €55 ($87) faceplates aren’t any easier to swallow.

[Via MoCo Loco]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Back when the format war was still a-brewin’, Inteset saw fit to offer up Blu-ray / HD DVD combo drives on its media PCs. Now that said war is behind us, the firm is plugging Blu-ray drives into its Vana VA6420-Si media extender system. The device, which can also be used in standalone form, enables users to bring content from varying locales within the domicile to a central home entertainment center, and aside from the 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, 2GB of RAM and GeForce 8400GT graphics card, you’ll also find 7.1-channel audio outputs, a slew of video ports including HDCP-compliant DVI / HDMI and even an option for a CableCARD tuner. Unfortunately, we’ve no idea how pricey this rig will be, but with specs like that, we can’t imagine it being cheap.

[Via eHomeUpgrade]

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Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Asus continues to crank up its media PC related offerings, its latest are two HDMI equipped sound cards aimed at HTPC users or prosumers. Next week at CeBIT expect to see the Xonar DX sound card, a slimmed-down edition of its Xonar D2X card made to fit any PCI-E x1 equipped computer. Dolby Digital Live and DTS connect support is still part of the package, plus EAX 5.0 compatibility. Next up is the Xonar AV1, complete with three HDMI jacks and Asus’ Splendid HD chip to assist audio and video mastering. Price or release date on these is unknown but we’re sure to get a closer look once the show starts.

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/Niveus_goes_Blu_ray_exclusive_ditches_HD_DVD’; Not like it’s any huge surprise or anything — after all, the HD DVD deathwatch is already in full effect — but Niveus has just informed us that due to “customer demand and format war influences,” it will be adding support for Blu-ray and “ceasing production of HD DVD-based servers.” According to CEO Tim Cutting, “incorporating Blu-ray into its offerings has always been part of the plan, but the demand from its customers, market trends, and recent announcements expedited its decision to come to market with Blu-ray support sooner rather than later.” Adding more salt to the wound, he continued by saying that “while it has stood behind HD DVD as a viable high-definition platform, company engineers have been running Blu-ray in its testing facilities and are very impressed with the performance and integration with its servers.” Another one bites the proverbial dust, eh?

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Filed under: CES, Home Entertainment

Sony is rolling out their new VAIO HTPC in two flavors — standard (VGX-TP20E, in polar white) and premium (VGX-TP25E, in piano black). The specs on these is pretty similar: 2.1GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 processors, 802.11b/g, 500GB storage, HDMI and Vista Home Premium, all wrapped up in the same cylindrical form factor. For the couch surfers, Sony’s tossing in a wireless keyboard with integrated touch pad in with these for couch surfers. Rollout of multimedia functionality continue across the notebook and desktop VAIO lines as well. The addition of two external CableCARD tuners differentiates the premium from the standard models. Pricing comes in at $1600 and $3000 for the two, respectively — seems like a steep premium for those two CableCARD tuners!

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Filed under: Desktops, Media PCs

Fujitsu pumped out three new DeskPower LX-series machines today, and they’re slightly less ugly than the visually criminal EK30T. Apart from having been designed by someone with eyes, the new machines feature built-in 19- or 22-inch displays, 2.2GHz E4500 Core 2 Duos, digital and analog TV tuners, and dual layer burners. All of these are on sale now in Japan, for anywhere from ¥21,000 to ¥26,000 ($1854 - $2,296), depending on specs.

[Via Akihabara News]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs

The last time we heard from Moneual, it was showing off a funky fresh tubular HTPC at CEDIA, but now it seems the firm is putting its poker face back on for the thoroughly traditional 972 Home Media Server. This rig rocks a tried and true flat black chassis, built-in display (at least it sure looks like one), a minimalist feel and a built-in Blu-ray writer to boot. ‘Course, you’ll find all the usual media PC amenities here including PVR functionality, but mum’s the word on actual hardware configurations. Keep it locked for more just as soon as we find out.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Interact-TV really hasn’t made a lot of noise since it unveiled the MyTellyHD Linux-based media server way back in January, but it’s cranking things back to 11 with the MediaPool Home Entertainment Server. This bad boy comes stocked with 3.75TB of configurable storage space — enough for around 750 DVDs — and was designed to play nice with the firm’s TellyVizionHD in order to create a swank PVR setup with near limitless room for content. Packed within the fanless MediaPool are five 750GB Seagate DB35-series HDDs, and all that open space can be linked up to your HTPC of choice via eSATA. The 3Gbps connection ensures that storing HD content won’t be an issue, and the blue backlit-display on the device’s front panel conveniently includes temperature readouts along with an overheat warning. Now, just as soon as we figure out how to sufficiently fill up nearly 4TB of HDD space with flicks, shows and tunes, we may consider picking one up — if it hasn’t been discontinued by then, that is.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Those keeping tabs on Niveus’ outdoorsy naming system shouldn’t be shocked to hear that it has chosen the Sierra Edition to follow the Rainier and Denali Edition Media Center PCs. Unfortunately, we’ve absolutely no information on what kind of hardware we can expect to find within this stylish box, but the firm has promised that it’ll deliver “impressive Media Center functionality, digital content management, and superior convenience for the whole family.” Keep an eye on this space for more, and feel free to join us in hoping for an HD disc drive of some sort to make an appearance when this thing gets official.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Media PCs

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Media PCs, Portable Audio, Portable Video

We’ve never paid much attention to Spain’s Blusens, but we just got hold of the company’s 2008 catalog and frankly, we’re impressed. We don’t know how much of this stuff will ever actually see the light of day, but there’s some seriously sick (hypothetical) gear in there, like the G.41 PMP pictured above, which features a 4.3-inch screen, WiFi, MP3, WMA, MPEG4 and Ogg support, an integrated digital camera, voice recorder, FM radio, and what looks like a well-polished UI. Also worth noting is the G.71 media streamer / DVR, available in DVD or Blu-ray versions, which features a removable hard drive and external storage support, dual DVB-T tuners, IPTV support, Ethernet, WiFi, HDMI-out, and DivX / DivX HD / XviD, H.264 and MPEG2 support. Rounding out the highlights is the C.40 VoIP phone, which’ll let you Skype it up over WiFi. Some of these designs rip pretty heavily from other companies, and again, we’re not at all certain what’s real and what’s not, but damn — Blusens, welcome to the scene. Peep the whole catalog in the gallery.

[Via Gizmología]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Desktops, Media PCs

We know, not everyone sits within touching distance of their HTPC, but tossing a seven-inch touch panel into such a chassis provides excellent bragging rights if nothing else. Thermaltake’s DH 102 HTPC enclosure manages to include just that, along with a piano black mirror coating and aluminum front panel, wireless remote, front-mounted jog dial, USB 2.0 / FireWire ports, built-in Media LAB interface, and space for a number of internal hard drives. Unfortunately, pricing details have yet to be released, but if it ends up a bit too pricey for you, there’s always the DH 101 that forgoes the snazzy (albeit potentially unnecessary) touchscreen and replaces it with a smaller LCD (or none at all).

[Via DarkVision Hardware]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!