Hasta La Gadget!

Shopping for a new home AV setup with DLNA support? You’ve got twice as many options as you might have had just a few years ago. The Digital Living Network Alliance says that it has certified over 500 AV systems, handily doubling the number of devices it has certified since 2010. The organization issued a press release lambasting the dark ages of pre-DLNA AV setups and the “bulky tapes, memory cards, discs and CDs” that media lovers once had to contend with. “Consumers are demanding more from their digital content and looking for ways to access media from multiple devices on their home network,” explains DLNA chairman and president Nidhish Parikh. “Certified AV systems are able to communicate with other consumer electronics… …effectively expanding the boundaries of the digital home through easy interoperability.” More connected devices for folks outside of the Apple ecosystem? Sounds good to us — even if most devices pack in compatibility for both.

Continue reading DLNA doubles its certification of audio-video hardware in two years

Filed under: Home Entertainment

DLNA doubles its certification of audio-video hardware in two years originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Unveiled for the first time a CEATEC 2012, here you are the first series of TVs featuring Sharp Moth Eye technology. By adding tiny (on a nanoscale level) irregularities on its panel Sharp is capable to drastically reduce glare while still being able to display bright and perfect colors and contrast, and the first TVs to support this new Moth Eye technology is the XL9 Series from Sharp.
Available in 46, 52, 60, 70 and 80” with a price range between 280,000 up to 1 Million yen these XL9 Full HD …

Linn might not be the first name you associate with iPhone and iPad streaming, but the Scottish company is hoping that change all that with its “budget” Kiko media streamer. “Budget” for Linn means £2,500, mind (the company’s hand-made kit usually comes in at around $70k) though you do get a fair amount for your money: while the Kiko system will play nicely with Apple’s AirPlay, Linn has also custom built its own streaming hardware complete with audio upsampling whether you’re listening to music on a phone or tablet, through Spotify or Netflix, or from your games console or Blu-ray player.

In fact, Kiko gets the same proprietary algorithms as the company’s far more expensive network media players – Linn famously opted-out of CDs, persisting with turntables until it jumped directly to streaming systems, and then set up its own high-bitrate record label, Linn Records, to sell digital music of the quality it believed was required –  which are applied to its range of inputs. You get three HDMI and one S/PDIF, RCA phono, and a TOSLINK digital optical, together with ethernet for streaming from an internet service or your networked PC/Mac/NAS.  There’s also a 3.5mm aux-in and a headphone socket on the front panel.

The output is to the matching Kiko speakers, which pairs each driver with a 33W RMS amp and use a digital crossover. There’s also an HDMI output for your TV or projector. Various free apps, such as Kinsky for iPhone and iPad [iTunes link] are offered for remote control, media selection, and more.

Of course, Linn’s main rival isn’t B&W or Bose, whose AirPlay-compatible systems start to look cheap in comparison to the Kiko, but brands like Bang & Olufsen. The Danish company’s BeoPlay A9, for instance, is far more outlandish in its appearance than the Linn system, but costs roughly the same (though doesn’t have the same flexibility in streaming or connectivity).

Does that make the Linn Kiko a bargain? At £2,500 in the UK and around $3,390 in the US, it doesn’t come cheap, though you’re getting the culmination of several years of R&D not to mention in-house production of the curved aluminum casings (available in six colors).

Linn Kiko takes AirPlay up a level is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Parrot has taken some time trotting out the Zikmu Solo speaker since we first saw it at CES, but those enamored with very vertical audio can rest easy now that the unit has a North American release schedule. Both Canada and the US can buy the Philippe Starck-crafted speaker in November, when it will cost $999 for Americans in its black and white guises (sorry, no red for now). While that’s a lot to pay for a 100W speaker, Parrot is counting on the unique acoustic design, a conventional iOS dock and a mix of Bluetooth, NFC and WiFi to tempt people away from the land of horizontal sound. It’s undoubtedly one of the easiest ways to make a speaker dock the focus of a room — and that’s part of the point, isn’t it?

Continue reading Parrot Zikmu Solo reaches US in November, makes a tower of wireless sound yours for $999

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio/Video

Parrot Zikmu Solo reaches US in November, makes a tower of wireless sound yours for $999 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Oct 2012 14:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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High-end home entertainment kit provider and style trend-setter Bang & Olufsen has outed its latest music system, but though the BeoPlay A9 goes wireless, it’s certainly not discrete. The vast, round speaker system – which reminds us of an archery target, albeit one with touch-sensitive volume controls and a companion smartphone and tablet app – can be wall-mounted or stood on three wooden legs, streaming music around your home via DLNA and AirPlay.

Behind the fabric front there are two 3/4-inch tweeters and two 3-inch midrange units, which each get an 80W class D amp of their own to power them. Bass is taken care of by an 8-inch unit with its own 160W class D amp,  and there’s a bass reflex design to emphasize that.

B&O programs the BeoPlay A9 with three different modes, depending on positioning, whether you’ve got the speaker stood in the corner or freestanding the middle of a room, or wall-mounted. Six fabric cover colors are offered – silver, white, black, red, green, and brown – and three leg finishes, including oak, beech, and teak.

The touch sensor allows you to swipe up or down to change volume, while covering it completely mutes the system. Track selection and playlist management are done via the iPhone, iPad, and Android apps, and there’s a line-in and USB ports underneath.

Unsurprisingly for B&O, none of this comes cheap. The BeoPlay A9 will be priced at a hefty $2,699 when it hits stores in the second half of November.

B&O BeoPlay A9: AirPlay gets outlandish is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.