PurePVR

HTPCnews.com is carrying news that TVedia 4.0 has been released. For those of you who are unfamiliar with TVedia, it is another Windows based Media Center application that was born out of necessity. Since Windows Media Center Edition 2005 is not [1]technically available for purchase, a group of developers got together and wrote TVedia 4.0.

TVedia can be found here, and there is a 15 day trial available for those who want to try it. After the trial expires, you can purchase the full version for $34.95, which includes 1 year of TVedia subscription service.

For those of you who are not interested in paying the $34.94 / year (which in all fairness is a lot less then renting a PVR / DVR from your service provider), don’t forget to check out GB-PVR & Media Portal, both of which are free and run on Windows.

[1] Although you can buy Windows MCE 2005 at some stores (e.g. TigerDirect) it is not in the true spirit of the license. An OEM license is designed to be sold with a complete system.

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, TVedia, MCE, Media+Center+Edition, GB-PVR, Media+Portal

Although this one is geared more towards the Windows Media Center Edition crowd, it is still an interesting product for anyone who is into home theaters systems and HTPCs. Chris wrote up a review of the Simplifi Digital AV Expander which is a PCI card that allows you to connect more devices to your MCE box (like game systems and HDTV devices).

I won’t spoil the review, but there is no doubt that a product like this is definitely something that a lot of people should look at. I personally have to specially configure my system to share inputs because I don’t have enough available, but for $100 USD I could probably solve a lot of my issues.

Chris’ full review can be read here.

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, HTPC, MCE, Simplifi

Today I am going to be playing catch up. Instead of one post talking about something in particular, I’m going to post a few links. Unfortunately I have been so busy lately that this site hasn’t been getting the attention it deserves. So here we go:

• Watch TV on PSP with TiVo ToGo – Daily Game
• TiVo Adds iPod Support — For a Price – Beta News
• Apps Turn Your Computer Into a Powerful DVR – PC World
• DirecTV Titanium – Luxist
• NVIDIA DualTV MCE – A review at Digital Trends
• Feature: Build a living-room PC – Computer Act!ve
• PVR gets new features as sales rocket – Biz Community

I thought all of the above had some interest, hence me posting their links. Currently I need to shuffle my days around a bit so I can find a steady time to work on this site. But for now, hopefully this will do.

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, TiVo, iPod, MCE, DirecTV, SageTV, SnapStream, Beyond+TV

Now this can be a handy tool. Sonic (now owned by Roxio) has released a nice application / plugin for Windows Media Center Edition 2005 called MyTvToGo. The plugin retails for $29.95 USD, but it appears to be well worth the price (a free trial is also available).

The main focus behind this program is to convert digital recordings from your MCE PVR / DVR and transfer them to your Pocket PC, iPod, PSP or laptop. Sure, there are already programs out there that will allow you re-encode video and transfer it, but this is integrated right into MCE for a no fuss solution. The whole process is done in the background, so after a show is recorded it is re-encoded and queued up to be synchronized with your device.

Found via WindowsForDevices.com. The product page can be found here.

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, MCE, Media+Center+Edition, iPod, Apple, PSP

Engadget has a sneak peek at the Zalman HD 160XT. The HTPC fits in a nice small case and comes with a built in 7” LCD touch screen as well as a remote. Looking at the specs there also seems to be plenty of room for expansion in there. Unfortunately at this time no price is available. It does appear to run Windows Media Center Edition, judging from the pictures available here.

My biggest beef is that it reminds me way too much of an older (circa 1980s) ‘portable’, somewhat similar to the Hyperion that I cut my teeth on (lots of time compiling BASIC programs on that sucker).

The full Engadget post can be found here.

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, Zalman

Chris Lanier is carrying news about a new product release from Blueado, a company which specializes in building HTPCs and using primarily Windows Media Center Edition 2005.

The new model is quite a beast. The standard model includes a standard STSC TV tuner as well as an Over the Air HDTV, a 400 GB hard drive, 2 GB of RAM and a slew of other features.

The Blueado mini m5e Sport Edition is availble to US customers through Blueado’s website (www.blueado.com) at prices starting at $1999. Definitely more than a do it yourself solution, but it does look like one hell of a nice system

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, MCE, Blueado

BroadcastingCable.com is carrying a story which reports that ABC has backed off when it comes to restructuring its advertising model. ABC had hoped that it would be able to make deals with advertisers wherein the advertisers would be charged not only based on viewers who watch the show live, but also for viewers who use a PVR / DVR device to watch the show within 7 days. Eventually ABC had to fold due to the pressure from the advertising industry. But who is right here?

Read more

Acer has announced that it will start shipping its newest entry into the HTPC market – the Aspire iDea 500. At a quick glance this thing looks like it has some decent potential. For example, it is one of the first [1]Viiv compliant systems that is being shipped. It also has an onboard HDMI port built in.Other highlights include Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 as its core operating system (which will also provide PVR / DVR functionality), dual TV tuners as well as only outputting approximately 23dBa of noise in an idle state.

On the down side, it seems odd that such a new system does not include a Blu-ray or HD-DVD player.

Found via DailyTech. Acer’s product page can be found here.

[1]Viiv is a new technology platform from Intel that is basically made up of different components including processors, chipsets, network cards, etc. In order to be a Viiv compatible system, some of these core components must be present.

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, HTPC, MCE, Media+Center+Edition, HD-DVD, Blu-ray

Amex Digital has released specs on its MPC-505 HTPC device, which it claims is the first HTPC to support the next generation Blu-ray DVD format. Some highlights of the unit include the 3Ghz processor, 2 gigs of RAM and 1 TB of storage (that’s a lot of recorded TV!).

The unit also runs Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 as its operating system which means that users will be able to add customizations the look and feel of it by using plugins.

As of right now a price and launch date still have to be disclosed, but even without that, this HTPC sure looks like a great device for the PVR / DVR enthusiast.

Found via Digital Lifestyle.

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, HTPC, MCE, blu-ray

For those of you who use Windows XP Media Center Edition as a PVR / DVR, you are probably familiar with the fact that the device itself is still pretty much a PC running a customized version Windows XP. Well Windows has had what is called a Registry since Windows 95. What’s so special about the Windows Registry? Well it’s the place where just about all of your settings are stored. Quite often you can edit the Registry to make changes that would other wise be impossible. That’s where Aaron Stebner’s blog post comes into play.

Aaron gave us a list of settings that we can change to customize MCE just a bit more to our liking. Be forewarned though, it is extremely easy to completely mess up Windows if you enter bad values in the Registry. It is suggested to only try these hacks if you know what you are doing.

Technorati Tags: PVR, DVR, MCE, Windows