Hasta La Gadget!

I’ve written a lot about 3DTV and that I consider it occasionally incredible. But the entire concept is tough to explain because, let’s face it, I can’t just embed 3DTV example videos and you’ve probably never seen it. Allow me:

I stood on a crowded CES floor with an assignment I dreaded. I had to look at every 3DTV I could find, an attraction that seemed to be drawing the slowest, most annoying attendees of all of CES into long lines to split a few pairs of glasses.

And these stupid screens are so unimpressive at first glance. To the naked eye, the screen is a tad blurry and maybe even a bit washed out. Then you slip on a pair of lightweight, heavily-douchey, thick-framed glasses. After a moment or two, the world around you goes darker, that once-blurry image sharpens instantly, and suddenly you’re watching 3D.

The image you see will vary with content. You’ll note a light flickering over your eyes, somewhere between the gaping black holes of an old time projector playing silent films and smooth 24 or 30fps video of a DVD or digital projector. But the biggest change is that your TV is no longer a flat pane but a window, an image in which there’s an actual depth your eye can dig through, a digital diorama, if you will.

And if you happen to be looking around a room filled with 3DTVs, or maybe a display of 15 stacked 3DTVs, all of these TVs will have turned 3D. In mass, the effect is a giggle-filled novelty ever so reminiscent of Jaws 3D.

Animation is, by far, the most impressive demo you will see. Impossibly crisp and colorful, the effect is extremely lifelike…for a cartoon. More simply put, there’s a perfect front to back gradient. Every object looks, well, like an object, like something round that takes up real physical space. When, during a clip of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge’s oily, porous nose protrudes from the screen ever so forcefully, you can’t possibly imagine the moment done justice in 2D. The sense of flesh far outweighs what you see in the illustrative lead shot, because truthfully, these scenes have been designed and rendered with information that our displays have been incapable of showing us. With 3D animation, 3D is no gimmick—it’s 2D that’s the lousy undersell. And your eyes will be able to tell as they savor looking as deep as they can into the frame.

Sports are a vastly different, inferior experience. Basketball, for instance, is interesting in 3D but also indicative of the format’s limitations. For one, the court has depth, but the players are quite flat, like a few paper cutouts are dribbling a ball back and forth instead of fully corporeal, 6’6″ titans. Your mind can’t quite reconcile the image, as it’s somewhere between 2D and 3D, meaning it looks more fake, in a sense, than the simple 2D presentation we’ve always seen (the term “uncanny valley,” though not quite suitable in this context, certainly comes to mind). I assume such is a result from the use of telephoto lenses, which are notorious for flattening even 2D images. The effect is even more pronounced in 3D, meaning that stereoscopic 3D shouldn’t (and can’t) be the end game for sports no matter what ESPN tells you. I could easily imagine a multicam arena setup which these blank (flattening) information spots could be filled, and an actual 3D image (a la Pixar) could be piped to consumers, rendered in real time. The effect in sports could truly be something we’ve never seen before (Madden 2010 crossed with real textures, essentially). As of now, it feels more like we’re playing with paper dolls.

Live action film, specifically Avatar, is something I haven’t seen on a 3DTV beyond a few 3D previews. The fast paced trailers—as opposed to the long, expansive shots of Pixar-style animation—don’t lend themselves as well to the illusion (the 3D planes constantly break), and it’s quite difficult to really assess or describe an effect that your eyes can’t chew on for a while. On an IMAX 3D screen, I’ve mentioned that Avatar showed me textures I’d never seen before. On a plasma, Avatar looks far more like a cartoon, and its depth gradient is somewhere between the 2Dish sports and the all-out 3D animations (probably because Avatar itself is much a combination of the two). In the theater, I opened my eyes as wide as possible to take in the bioluminesence of Pandora. On the small screen, a light flicker distances you, almost unconsciously, from the content. But then again, Avatar never looked nearly as impressive in trailers as it did in final cut form, and 3D missiles firing straight at you will always be awesome.

But when things go really bad…

…watching 3D is nothing but pain. Before checking out an LCD or OLED, you put on the shutter glasses, as if all is well and good, and the lights again dim instantly. Each actual frame of the video are just as colorful, sharp and Y-axis-deep as those you’ve seen on better displays. But the frame rate seems to drop, with your favorite Pixar hero moving without smoothness or extreme subtlety. And of course there’s a flicker on top of the odd frame rate, causing the already subpar image to strobe. The overall effect is akin to playing Crysis on an underpowered GPU along with some monitor that goes dark several times a second. It’s sour stacked on sour, an experience with so little redeeming quality you should cease to even consider it.

That annoying CES line I described at the start of this piece? It was at the LG booth, right before I took a look at their 3D plasma prototype, which is slated to be released later this year for $200 over a 2D model. And right when I was ready to give up on glasses, gimmicks and eyestrain, the experience wiped my memory of it all as I stood there transfixed for at least 5 minutes, disregarding the line behind me and watching the same remarkable animated clips over and over. I thought of a new era of filmmakers speaking in an updated cinematic dialect, and I knew that words couldn’t quite describe the sensations—we simply hadn’t decoded them yet.

(Oh, and if you think all of this is too lovey on 3D, read all of my technological caveats here.)

Home theater is about compromise. You probably can’t afford tens of thousands of dollars to make a real home cinema. Neither can you convince your significant other that you need to jam a speaker into every corner of the room and, worse, run cables to them. And even if you’re happy with just a big TV hooked up to your PS3, the wall-mounted flat-panel is likely firing its rear-mounted speakers straight through the plaster into the (unimpressed) neighbor’s bedroom.

Thankfully, there is one compromise that looks like it will pay off in your favor, offering sleek good looks along with decent sound. The solution is a soundbar, a discreet strip of speakers that sits below the screen and, while not delivering the power or clarity of a full 5.1 setup, will certainly be good enough to make it worth watching T2 yet again.

We were expecting a slew of new soundbars at CES 2010, ready and eager to team up with all the big new HD TVs people have convinced themselves they needed for the analog switch-off. But we were disappointed, both with the quality and the quantity. The worst we saw were from Dell, paired up with its new Mini 10, the netbook with a hi-def screen and TV-tuner. A netbook is probably the computer in most need of a decent set of speakers, as the built-in ones are almost always tinny and terrible. Dell’s effort did nothing to improve the sound of the machine it was attached to.

The best (as in most convenient) models are those with built-in amplifiers, as they don’t need a separate receiver: instead they hook up to your TV’s outputs. Make sure, too, that there are enough inputs for all your sources, from DVD to games console to (gasp) VCR.

The most promising soundbar at CES was from Panasonic. The SC-HTB1 not only packs in all the speakers and electronics needed to trick you into thinking the sound is coming from behind you, it also has a pair of subwoofers inside, mounted pointing in opposite directions to reduce vibration. The unit hooks up via HDMI (for two-way audio) and has processing to make it sound as if the dialog is coming from the entire TV screen.

We’re skeptical on those subwoofers, though, as they are too tiny to shift the amount of air needed to punch the bass into your gut. Consider instead convincing your spouse that a sub-woofer is a worthwhile addition. Like the sub-and-satellite speakers most of us use to listen to music these days, adding a big, bad bass speaker to the mix will give explosions the kick that the little soundbars just can’t deliver. Better still, as bass is mono and mostly non-directional, you can always hide it behind the sofa, like a little kid watching Doctor Who.

IOGear is more commonly known for its desktop and laptop KVM switches and peripherals, but at CES this year, home theater and media devices dominated the company’s booth. It is making a strong push into the home theater market, including the ability to wirelessly transmit HD content from the devices in your entertainment center to your TV. 

Want to make your home theater system sound even better? Today, JVC announced two soundbar systems that let you create movie theater sound without taking up a lot of space. Both systems will be available this month.

The TH-BA3 is a 280-watt, 5.1-channel surround sound system that includes a soundbar, wireless subwoofer, and wireless rear speaker kit (with wireless left and right speakers and a wireless receiver). The soundbar itself contains four speakers–one each for the left and right main channels, plus two for the center channel–as well as a power amplifier, system controls, and the transmitter for the wireless speakers. It will list for $549.95.

The second system, the TH-BS7, includes a super-slim soundbar that measures 1.4-inches tall, an even slimmer wall-mountable amplifier and control unit, and a wireless subwoofer. This 180-watt, 4.1-channel system includes two front surround channels that use JVC’s Front Surround technology to create a surround sound effect without the need for rear speakers. It will list for $599.95.

I hear a lot about those damned netbooks as hot buys this season, but Prof. Dealzmodo suggests getting something that’s actually, you know…useful. HTPCs baby. There has never been a better time:

I say that because HTPCs have never been smaller, cheaper or more powerful. A little over two years ago, we were talking about how purchasing an HD-capable PC would leave you with an empty bank account. Take this Sony Vaio TP1 for example. The wheel of cheese design was considered compact and “living room friendly” at the time, but it is still probably twice as big as current nettop models. The specs are lacking even by 2007 standards and it started at $1600. Today I can easily go out and find a more powerful, feature rich nettop for less than $400. And it would be small enough to tuck behind your HDTV due, in part, to cheap, compact, graphics-friendly chipsets like Nvidia Ion.

Today’s Most Affordable HTPCs

Seriously…HTPCs for less than $400. Sure, you could spend a lot of cash on something more elaborate, and will have to if you want to access your own digital cable stream, or if you want to go with Blu-ray as your high-def source of choice, but if you simply want a compact 1080p device that competently opens up the entire internet to your HDTV, here is a good place to start:

• Dell Zino HD: The cheapest of the bunch at a base price of $230, the Dell Zino HD offers a range of AMD Athlon processor options, up to a 1TB HDD, up to 8GB of RAM and a choice between integrated graphics and an ATI Radeon HD 4330 512MB card. Plus you get HDMI, four USB ports, and two eSATA for easy expansion. Even with a few bells and whistles like a dual-core processor, a bump in RAM to 4GB or a boost in the HDD capacity, you can keep the Zino under $400. Adding a Blu-ray drive bumps the price up an additional $100. [Dell]

• Acer AspireRevo R6310: Features include a dual-core 1.6GHz Atom 330 processor, Nvidia Ion graphics, 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, HDMI, eSATA, VGA, 6 USB ports, card reader and wireless-N in a $330 package. They even throw in a wireless keyboard and mouse for good measure. I have spent some time with the AspireRevo, and I can say that it is a very capable HTPC for the money. Power web surfing can be sluggish at times, as is Flash playback—but Adobe has promised support for NVIDIA graphics acceleration in Flash 10.1 that should remedy that situation. All-in-all though, it handles video quite well. It does not include optical drive option, meaning you will have to purchase a Blu-ray player seperately. [Acer]

• Asus EeeBox EB1012: A release date and price have not officially been confirmed, but the EeeBox EB1012 offers basically the exact same feature set as the AspireRevo—minus a USB port or two. Hopefully, when it is released, the price point will be even more aggressive than Acer’s. It does not include optical drive option, meaning you will have to purchase a Blu-ray player separately. [Asus]

As a side note, if you are interested in using a CableCard tuner to turn your PC into a cable DVR, that has become a lot easier for the average Joe. However, programs like Comcast’s upcoming Xfinity (formerly known as TV Everywhere) might easily bridge this gap by putting your current cable subscription online. Check out my article on living without cable or satellite to learn more about what programming and software is available to you online.

Remotes

None of the HTPCs mentioned above come with a remote control out of the box, but this can be easily and cheaply remedied. Most infrared remotes require only that you have a free USB port for the included adapter, so just about any PC with Windows Media Center can be converted to work with a remote.

If you are just looking for something basic, a remote like the MCE PC will do the job just fine—and it costs under $20. If you have an iPhone, you can also download apps like AirMouse (iTunes link) and MediaMote (iTunes link) to handle these tasks. Gmote is also available for those of you with Android phones.

Networking

Keep in mind that if your modem is far from your computer, and you’ll be relying on Wi-Fi to connect to the internet and move files between computers, you are probably going to want something capable of handling wireless-N (802.11n). Fortunately, all of the PCs mentioned above can do that right out of the box—although the Dell Zino requires a $45 upgrade for that option.

If you want to upgrade an older PC to handle wireless-N, all you need is a compatible router and a USB adapter. Decent wireless-N routers will run you about $60 on the lower end, and compatible USB adapters can be had for an additional $30 or $40 bucks. If you just plan on connecting to the internet and you live in a smaller home or apartment, you should be fine with 802.11g.

Networked Storage

Although not an essential component to owning an HTPC, at some point you are probably going to want a networked storage solution so you can dump all of your files in one place. Traditionally, setting up a home server to centrally store files from multiple computers (and multiple platforms, potentially) required another major investment, but things have definitely improved in this area. For example, HP’s LX195 Windows Home Server with a 640GB drive can be had for $250, and it performs quite well for the price. The same can be said for the Iomega Ix2-200 NAS. It runs on Iomega’s proprietary software as opposed to Windows Home Server, but for the money, it has a killer feature set that makes it a pretty awesome deal. Capacity runs up to 4TB, but the base delivers 1TB at $270 and it is user-expandable.

Even if you want to bake your own NAS server there is open-source software like FreeNAS that can help to keep the costs down. Maximum PC has provided a great guide to building a NAS server using these free open source tools. If you have the hardware lying around, it’s not going to cost a penny. Either way, building from scratch can be fairly inexpensive depending on how much storage space you need.

Avoid Expensive Set-Top Boxes

Amusingly enough, as I was writing this article, my father called to ask me about the Roku player his IT guy was raving about. Yes, Roku’s three models are priced between $80 and $130, a figure even the cheapest HTPCs can’t match, but the fact that they are still limited to Netflix and Amazon On Demand makes them less valuable. Would you say that Netflix and Amazon VOD are worth $130 of the AspireRevo’s $330 price tag? I should hope not.

There are certainly good reasons to pick up a $100 HD media streamer, like the Asus O!Play, if you’re aware of the limitations, but what’s the excuse for Apple TV and others like it? Apple’s set-top box costs $229. I have iTunes on my HTPC…so where is the value? Throw an HDMI port on a Mac Mini and then we’ll talk. The $300 Popcorn Hour player may play a ton of file formats and have an integrated BitTorrent client, but you have to pay extra to add a hard drive, and by the time you do, you’re squarely in HTPC territory.

To me, spending a little more actually saves money, because I don’t need to buy so many competing boxes. It’s like going to the grocery store and choosing between the regular-sized bag of coffee and the jumbo bag of coffee. The smaller bag costs lest money, but buying in bulk is cheaper pound for pound—and you know I will be drinking all of that coffee.

HTPCs Are Resilient

Forget about netbooks and elaborate set-top media boxes this holiday season. If your budget is anywhere over $300, go with an HTPC. Set-top boxes will always hold you to whatever content deals their makers can set in place (or whatever you can go through the trouble of hacking or modding in, yourself). And I’m not interested in netbooks until they handle HD well enough to be used as a portable HTPC.

It’s only a matter of time before everyone watches TV through the internet, so you had better get on the bandwagon while cable companies are still scrambling to figure out how best to screw you. No matter how weird it gets, at least with a PC you know you’ll be able to roll with it.