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Fri March 8, 2013 at 11:08 AM
When Netflix decided to get into the streaming business, the company needed a device in your home theater to stream movies to. Just weeks before the box, codenamed Griffin, was to hit store shelves, the project was canceled. But it didn’t die, it came to market under the Brand name Roku and started its own little revolution. Roku continues to innovate and recently announced the launch of the Roku 3.
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Fri March 1, 2013 at 11:01 AM
We’ve watched streaming media go from incredibly choppy and blocky to smooth and nearly HD. As bandwidth increases so does the quality of streaming media. You can easily listen to CD quality audio but streaming Blu-ray quality video is a ways off... or is it? We have an interview with Mark Henninger, an AVS Forum “Newsbreaker”, and we discuss a series of articles he wrote where he compares movies on iTunes, Vudu, and Blu-ray.
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Fri February 22, 2013 at 10:22 AM
Most of us have wireless networks in our homes these days, there’s nothing like the convenience of instant Internet without wires. But we’ve also come to the painful realization that our wireless networks just can’t live up the the rigors of HD streaming, especially if we want to stream multiple videos to different TVs. But as they say with technology, if you don’t like it, just wait a while and someone will fix it. Supposedly the new wireless spec, 802.11ac, can do just that.
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Fri February 15, 2013 at 8:09 AM
A few weeks ago we received an email from a good friend of the show, Jack, telling us about an article he read about HDMI cables. He pointed us to a comment to the article where a reader said that with better HDMI cables changing channels resulted in the tuner locking onto it about a ½ second faster than with cheap cables. (Note: in the accompanying video we credit Michael with sending us the email and actually seeing a difference in lock speeds. Michael helped us with the setting up the test cases).
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Fri February 8, 2013 at 10:08 AM
We have reviewed a handful of wireless HDMI systems in the past, and have been impressed each time at how much better they’re getting and how quickly the prices have fallen. An unfortunate incident in the Russell home recently required a replacement wireless HDMI setup, kicking off a new round of research into what is available on the market now.
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Fri February 1, 2013 at 4:01 AM
There are a few reasons you would want to automate your home. Very close to the top of the list is saving money. And the one item that uses the most energy is your heating and air conditioning system. Today we’ll take a look at four thermostats that let you monitor and control your HVAC system from anywhere in the world. When you decide to build out a complete automation system these thermostats can be integrated right in.
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Fri January 25, 2013 at 3:25 AM
To take full advantage of an automation system, you need a server running that can take action based on events that may occur, these are often called "triggers." You can run a software package on a computer you leave on 24/7 or you can buy a dedicated device for it. If you’re like us and have Insteon devices in your home, one option to look into is the Insteon Hub from SmartHome.
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Fri January 18, 2013 at 3:18 AM
We have had slingboxes for the past 5 years and they have come in quite handy! There have been plenty of Sundays where the Slingbox has allowed us to keep up with our favorite football team. In general the Slingbox is life saving device for those of us who spend some time on the road. Today we take a look at the latest Slingbox, the Slingbox 500. It has a street price of $288 and is available now.
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Fri January 11, 2013 at 3:12 AM
Another CES has come and gone. At the risk of being permanently banned, we've brought back everything we saw and did in Vegas to share it with everyone who couldn't be there. As with every CES, we saw some amazing things and some not so impressive ones as well. Big themes from this year were: 3D is waning, 4K (UltraHD) is emerging, and Plasma may be on the verge of a comeback.
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Fri January 4, 2013 at 3:04 AM
Each year we make our way through the California and Nevada deserts to spend some quality time with the latest in electronics. Today we will focus on what the large manufacturers are planning on showing. This information is compiled by reading through the countless press releases we get sent each day starting in November. The next show will focus on what we see when we are there in person. We usually try to find the cool stuff that the smaller, lesser known companies are showing.
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