Hasta La Gadget!

On Monday, Broadcom, Cisco, DirecTV and Samsung announced the “RVU Alliance,” a consortium designed to provide “pixel-perfect” graphics to a number of devices around the home.

Bored yet? I can see why. But underneath the rather blasé surface of the press release is an interesting direction for your home media network, especially if you subscribe to DirecTV.

Here’s the key point, according to the Alliance: “[The] RVU Alliance’s pixel accurate RUI technology will provide an identical user experience on all RVU-based thin client CE devices throughout the connected home, including digital TVs (DTVs), digital media adapters (DMAs) and set-top boxes (STBs).”

“Thin client” appears to be the operative word here. Virtually all cable and satellite systems require roughly identical set-top boxes to be placed around the home, in every room that contains a TV — if you want the full-featured functionality of a DVR or other device, I mean.

After a quick test run on Entone’s IPTV boxes, VUDU has now done the deed with a big time player. In a joint announcement today with LG, the outfit is announcing its first major foray into STB-less movie streaming. LG’s Netflix-friendly LH50 line of connected HDTVs will act as the hosts, with VUDU’s tried and true high-def streaming service acting as the highly anticipated guest. The outfit’s next generation movie platform will enable owners of the 47LH50, 50PS80, 60PS80 and 42LH50 to buy or rent HD and HDX (1080p) films on demand through a refreshed user interface that promises no stutters or buffering waits. The new VUDU also brings along instant fast forward and rewind as well as instant start for all movie qualities, and as before, there’s no monthly fee associated with the service. Eager to dive on in? It’ll be made available for everyone (existing owners included) starting next month, and just so you know, we definitely don’t envision LG being the last TV maker to slip under VUDU’s covers. The full release is after the break.

Update: From the sounds of Vudu’s solo PR, the LG sets are just the first off the line, so we’d expect a few more manufacturers to partner up soon.

Continue reading VUDU ditches the box, integrates into LG’s LH50 NetCast HDTVs

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

VUDU ditches the box, integrates into LG’s LH50 NetCast HDTVs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This one’s been on the books since September of 2007. Now it looks like the first retail product based on Intel’s Canmore System on Chip (SoC), aka the CE 3100, will take its first step into the spotlight at Computex with this “ready-to-market” Mediaconnect TV. The highly customizable Mini ITX device runs a Linux-based Metroconnect OS that supports all the major video codecs and Dobly Digital/DTS decoding over 7.1 channels — the CE 3100 then acts to hardware accelerate sourced 1080p video stored locally or streamed over DLNA / uPnP from anywhere in the house over fixed gigabit Ethernet. Standard features include a pair of USB 2.0 ports, HDMI 1.3a/component/composite and TOSLINK jacks, an SD/MMC card reader, and up to 2TB of on-board (SATA) storage. The box itself is highly customizable with options to include UMTS/HSUPA radios, DVB T/C/S tuners, Bluetooth (for mouse and keyboard), and 802.11n WiFi to take your media streaming wireless. It even features a webcam of unspecified quality. The built-in web browser with Adobe Flash 9.0 support means all the Hulu you can eat and optional dual DVB-T tuners will give you simultaneous over the air TV reception and recording. It remains to be seen how much of this customization will be made available direct to consumers as opposed to the cable companies and telcos that Metrological will ultimately partner with. Nevertheless, they’ll be at Computex next week where we’ll be on hand to bring you more detail. A second picture of a different Mediaconnect TV, or the same device sans faceplate, and meta shot of the main menu UI after the break.

Continue reading Metrological’s Mediaconnect TV: the first Intel CE 3100 retail device?

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Metrological’s Mediaconnect TV: the first Intel CE 3100 retail device? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 May 2009 06:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The world needs another set-top-box like it needs another Kim Jong-Il, but we’ll do our best to stifle the sighs and present to you the ZyXEL DMA-2500. This well-specced box streams in material up to 1080p from any networked storage device, is DLNA 1.5 certified and supports more formats than it would be healthy for us to list. The outfit also claims that it’ll handle material laced in DRM, but the vagueness of it all has us skeptical. At any rate, users can also indulge in internet TV and online radio, and there’s an S-Video, composite and HDMI port to get it onto your television. Finally, the unit even includes a USB port which can presumably be used for adding local storage or a USB WiFi adapter. It’s filtering out now across the pond for the somewhat hard-to-swallow price of €223 ($296).

[Via HDTVInfo]

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

ZyXEL’s DMA-2500 streams in 1080p content from your network originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 May 2009 09:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Don’t know why the Motorola rumors are flying hot and heavy today, but right on top of that connected GPS whisper comes word that the struggling device manufacturer is being tapped to build a new version of KDDI’s multifaceted Au Box set-top unit that runs Android instead of the previous custom Linux build. The Au Box, if you’ll recall, is a trick little IPTV box with a DVD drive that can rip audio and video and transcode it for transfer or streaming to your cellphone — kind of like a more flexible Slingbox that costs $3/month for KDDI subscribers. Definitely interesting, especially since Android could make browsing and email extremely easy to implement as well — hey Moto, maybe you want to ditch your current garbage Stateside cable box lineup and start shipping these things at home?

[Via CNET]

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Motorola building Android-based cable boxes for Japan’s KDDI? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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