Harmonic Inc., has unveiled the ProView 700 integrated receiver and stream processing platform, the world’s first solution to combine a scalable video receiver, DVB descrambler, multi-format decoder, and MPEG stream processor in a single rack unit. The versatile and modular ProView 7000 paves the way for content providers, broadcasters, cable MSOs and telco operators to cost-effectively deploy today’s most advanced distribution and contribution applications.

Based on industry-leading Scopus integrated receiver/decoder (IRD) technology, the ProView 7000 is an outstanding solution for a large spectrum of content reception applications:

• Contribution and distribution applications: The ProView 7000 integrates seamlessly with Harmonic’s contribution encoders to provide a low-delay link that is ideal for newsgathering applications.
• Re-encoding applications: The ProView 7000 decodes all formats and standards including MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) in both standard and high definition, giving operators of DBS and IPTV networks maximum flexibility in their choice of content compression formats.
• Digital turnaround: Cable operators can significantly reduce operating expenses by descrambling multiple programs within a single compact unit.
• All-IP headends: The ProView 7000 can act as a receiver to descramble and transmit DVB-S2 satellite signals to Harmonic’s FLEX decoder blade for seamless encoding and enables the deployment of or migration to all-IP headend solutions. The entire video delivery infrastructure is easily managed and controlled using Harmonic’s NMX Digital Service Manager.

The new ProView 7000 platform will make its debut at the NAB 2009 Show in Las Vegas, April 20-23, in Harmonic’s booth #SU7209.

(Source) Press

What does it take to make a PC operate flawlessly to render quality home theater pieces? Well most likely, Niveus has that covered with this HTPC. The new Zone is only $1,499 for an Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 processor, 2GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, Blu-ray player, and a DVI-to-HDMI adapter for hooking it up to an HDTV.

The most interesting feature, however, is the Zone’s ability to synch up with other Zones in other rooms of your house. That means they can share content (like Blu-ray movies) with one another in addition to being able to tap into content from a server on your home network. (They can also interact with other networked media devices like Sonos’ multi-zone audio solution.)

With its tiny form factor, low energy requirements, and CableCard support, the Zone looks like a decent HTPC, though the hard drive is far too puny, especially if you plan to use the system as a DVR. But its true potential resides in having a few Zones around the house, which quickly adds up to thousands of dollars. In other words, you need to be the typical deep-pocketed Niveus customer to fully appreciate it.

(Source) ZDnet

It seems that the United Kingdom is the target of most electronic companies these days. After Sony had announced launching their W5500 LCD TVs, another company is now catering towards the media server end.

Kaleidescape has announced their Mini System in the UK, a multizone media server that occupies roughly the same space as a DVD player but promises storage of up to 225 DVD or 2500 CDs. Capable of outputting 1080p upscaled video via HDMI, the Kaleidescape Mini can also be linked to up to fifteen more players for multi-room entertainment.

Even with a single Kaleidescape Mini you can be playing 1080p video in the main zone and independent audio in two further zones. A Blu-ray player is promised for later in the year; until then, DVDs take 20 minutes to rip to the mediaplayer’s disk cartridges, while CDs take around five minutes; both are stored with RAID backup to prevent data loss.

While the Kaleidescape Mini is priced from $7,995 in the US, in the UK it will tip the scales at around £7,000 ($10,336). The company will also sell pre-recorded movie packs, such as a group of all the Academy Awards Best Picture Nominees.

(Source) Pocket-lint

BFG Phobos Media Server

The BFG Phobos offers a keen balance of gaming performance and home theater functionality and it is built by hand thanks to expert technicians using top-of-the-line hardware and software. The system offers a number of modern features, such as an interactive touch screen LCD, maintenance-free water-cooled CPU and graphics cards and an integrated iPod®/iPhone® syncing dock. The online configurator pretty much allows customers to pick and choose the amount of hardware and software that fits them.

You can choose from the performance for $3,000, the advanced for $5,000 or the elite systems that retails for $8,000. You can select from Intel’s latest Core i7 processors and Nvidia’s bizarre GTX-series graphics cards to keep the framerates up. On the outside you will notice the front-mounted touchscreen LCD panel that shows off all the necessary information including system performance and control multimedia.

Neuros

The Neuros “Link” Open Source Media PC is entirely open source and not locked into a single provider. By running Ubuntu Linux, the Link connects to your HDTV thru HDMI and is ready to stream 1080p video at your control. The Link works well with shows from NBC, Hulu, and most other streaming video sources. You could plug in an external hard drive loaded with DVD VOB files, AVI movies etc. and will play those directly.

Since Link has an MPlayer, VLC, Xine it will play almost any video format you bring its way. The Neuros link can work with audio applications too like Pandora and Last.FM to play music and it can also use photo sharing sites such as Picasa and Flickr. Since the Link has a totally open architecture you can modify it as you see fit. Retails for $299.99

For better audio quality for home theater setups, Auralex Acoustics has launched its new Home Design Series acoustical products that combines Auralex’s unsurpassed acoustical qualities with a unique aesthetic approach. The complete roster which will be on display at Musikmesse 2009 include:

• SonoSuede HD
• SubDude HD
• SpeakerDudes HD
• SonoFlat HD Systems
• Acoustical Drop HD

Auralex Acoustics has become the industry leader in innovative sound control solutions and continues to enjoy rapid growth through an international network of authorized dealers.

A new music server controller has been launched by Meridian-Soolos, further enhancing the line of audio equipment since Meridian’s acquisition of the music-server company incorporates proprietary connections to Meridian equipment.

The $5,000-suggested Meridian-Sooloos Control 10 is a touch-screen music-server controller that also connects to other-brand audio, distributed-audio and home-control systems. It replaces the Sooloos Control One, which lacked proprietary Meridian connections. The Control 10 resistive touchscreen features 17-inch LCD display and a slot-load CD drive to play or rip discs. The screen connects to separately sold hard drives and other source components via standard TCP/IP Ethernet connection.

The Control 10 features Meridian’s SpeakerLink digital databus technology and Comms control-signal technology. SpeakerLink carries balanced digital audio and control signals in the RS-232, IR, and Meridian Comms formats up to 300 feet over shielded CAT-5 cable to Meridian’s active speakers from Meridian’s preamplifier/controllers and source units. The active speakers incorporate digital crossovers and digital signal processing. Meridian speakers using the technology can be daisychained rather than home-runned back to a Meridian stereo source. In a surround system, the speakers must still be home-runned to a preamp/controller, but in either case, fewer cables need to be run because separate audio and control cables aren’t needed.

Control 10 also supports older Meridian products equipped with Comms but not with SpeakerLink. Comms is a bidirectional analog-control-signal technology that rides over RG-59 coaxial cable, which would also carry IR and RS-232 signals converted to Comms by Meridian equipment. Digital audio signals are carried by separate cables.

(Source) Twice

For the techies out there who want a piece of new devices in the market, make sure you don’t overlook this one. Western Digital recently unveiled a WDTV Media Player. The WDTV box lets your HDTV play media transferred from any USB storage device (flash drive or external hard drive), without any need for a streaming network device to bridge the distance from your storage drive or PC to the TV.

The WDTV can connect to any standard-definition or high-definition television; it has composite audio/video connectors and HDMI, as well as optical audio output. The WDTV’s two USB ports–one at front, one at back–let you keep two storage devices connected to the player simultaneously.

Setup is minimal: You hook the WDTV up to your TV, power it up, plug in a USB storage device, and you’re set. The device finds your content in real time, and displays it in specific categories. The WDTV displays media in a grid layout with a thumbnail icon (or album art for music) and the title at the bottom. Navigating items is simple and works as expected, though I would have liked the option to view items in a list instead. The WDTV does offer a few playback options. When viewing photos, for example, you can zoom in on photos and pan around, and you can create slideshows. Pressing the option key during playback will bring up these image controls, or similar controls for music or video playback.

Price: $110.00

(Source) Washington Post

The MuSe is a new hard disk based media server from Pragmatic Communication Systems, Inc.,that will be hitting the music server market soon. It’s designed for commercial, industrial or high-end residential installations. It utilizes four channels to playback stereo sound and it can access music from many sources, including USBs, the internal drive, DVD Roms, or anything else hooked up to the network.

Users create playlists up to 5,000 songs and then stores them on the 80 GB hard drive, which can be updated to a capacity of 400 GB or more. The device is comparatively lightweight, weighing 39 pounds and the switchable power supply makes it an energy efficient media server.

SmartQ has released a new desktop box that makes it easier for people to watch HD videos from their PC on to their TV. This device caters to a bunch of HD video formats and comes with a whole bunch of memory card slots to cater to various medium, as well as featuring enough USB ports to connect external USB hard drives directly.

The HDTV device is subsequently hooked up to your HDTV where you can then view any downloaded video files of your choice. Needless to say, it comes with an HDMI port and looks like the perfect choice to view HD videos on a nice TV without suffering from degradation of video playback.

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Kramer Electronics has unveiled a new graphics emulator, the VA-1VGA computer graphics EDID emulator. This new device will capture and emulate the EDID data of a display.

EDID (Extended Display Identification Data) is a data-structure consisting of 128 pieces of information that a display provides to the graphics card of a connected computer source to describe its capabilities so that the source can output the best possible signal for that display.

The EDID information is conveyed between the source and the display via a standard known as the Display Data Channel 2 (DDC2) utilizing pins 12 and 15 of a standard 15-pin HD computer graphics video signal connector.

Kramer’s VA-1VGA ensures that if a display is turned off, temporarily disconnected or for any reason unable to be seen by the source, the source will still output the best possible signal resolution. The VA-1VGA will “trick” the source into thinking the display is still directly connected even when the EDID information is unavailable.

(Source) Info Comm

Sky TV has recently announced that they have rolled out an update for their online TV service. 

The update includes 6 all new, live, TV channels as well as 2 movie channels which are all available now weather you have a Sky TV subscription or not.

If you didn’t know, the Sky TV subscription is about $20 a month and can be streamed using both a PC or Mac.

You can get more information regarding the service here.

Read (Pocket-lint)

Apple is slowing moving in the video on demand service. Or so do the confirmed rumors say. The next version of iTunes will probably bring you that video on-demand service. The service will be called iTunes Replay and it will “allow users to stream their iTunes video purchases directly from the company’s servers for playback anywhere, anytime without eating up local storage.”

Is Apple going to go ahead and compete against Netflix soon?

via

LaCinema Black MAX will bring you everything you need from the multimedia world. Watch movies, listen to music, record shows and even enjoy slideshows of your favorite pictures. The box will do a lot for you and it will do it all wirelessly. Here’s what’s to be expected from it:

• storage space 500GB / 1TB
• Hi-Speed USB 2.0
• MPEG-1, MPEG-2 / HD, MPEG-4, DIVX, XVID, H.264 HD, WMV9 HD video codecs
• AVI, DIVX, MPG, MP4, MKV, WMV, MOV, ISO, VOB, IFO, ASF, TS, TP, TRP, M2TS video format support
• 1920 x 1080p max resolution
• MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG, AC3, MP4, WAV/LPCM audio format support
• JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIF picture format support
• HDMI, Component (YUV) composite (CVBS)
• Optical Audio, Audio Stereo
• Analog composite video, S-Video
• Analog stereo audio
• Ethernet 10/100 Mbps, Wi-Fi (802.11n) connectivity
• PAL / NTSC
• Digital Terrestrial Television (DVB-T) TV tuner, High Definition supported

All that sounds just great so far. How much is one of those Black MAX boxes and when will they be available?

via Press

Kramer VP-728 ProScale Presentation Scaler/Switcher allows people to worry less about having to change in between cables, especially if you have more than one projector or TV installed. The VP-728 is a 9-input scaler/switcher that sets new quality and performance benchmarks in the Kramer line up of ProScale scalers and scaler/switchers with the incorporation of Silicon Optix HQV video processing.

The VP-728 is HDTV and HDCP compatible offering 720p, 1080i and 1080p HDTV output resolutions as well as numerous other user-selectable pre-defined output resolutions and one user definable output resolution setting.

The VP-728 can switch between any of 9 inputs that include 3-wire universal video inputs on RCA connectors, 2 computer graphics video inputs on 15-pin HD connectors and 2 HDMI inputs. There is also 1 USB input for uploading JPEG images and installing convenient firmware updates.

The unit also accepts stereo audio inputs for each of the 6 analog inputs. The VP-728 will output both analog stereo audio and S/PDIF audio. Also, any audio associated with one of the analog inputs will be embedded in the HDMI output signal.

(Source) InfoComm

Roku seems ready to offer everyone on demand videos from Amazon. A private beta has begun and those lucky ones to have been chosen will be able to enjoy Amazon Video On Demand. We have no idea when Roku will launch the service but if everything goes well we might see that happening soon enough. And YouTube might be next. What do you think? Interested in those Amazon videos? Ready to enjoy them from your Roku box?

via ZatzNotFunny

Okoro Media system has recently announced that their latest foray into the HTPC market has begun shipping. Entitled the 2009 OMS-LX100, the HTPC featuers a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of RAM, up to 2TB of storage, and NVIDIA’s GeForce 9300 complete with 512MB of RAM.

That isn’t all though, also featuring a front-panel display with optional touch screen, a dual-layer DVD burner, ATI Digital CableCARD tuner, OTA HDTV tuner, and 7.1-channel audio output.

Starting at a not-so-budget-friendly $1,725, Okoro’s OMS-LX100 is sure to spark interest in the hardcore home-theater-nuts. Oh, and did I mention it runs on Vista?

Read (eHomeUpgrade)

If you’re looking for a painless way to get your feature length movies in your TV room, Emtec’s S800 HDD Movie Cube may be for you.

Featuring 500GB of internal storage which allows for about 600 feature length movies, the Movie Cube has HDMI, USB and Scart ports allowing for a wide range of connectivity.

Bored of movies? Fine, the S800 also includes a built in radio, along with music playback, so you won’t miss a tune.

There are several ways to get content on the Movie Cube as it also doubles as a DVR, allowing for recording and playback of your favorite TV programs. Network it with your computer using the built in Ethernet port or WiFi for even more pain-free transfers.

Emtec’s S800 Movie Cube will go on sale in December for £229.99 or about $350.

Read (Pocket-link)

Access to animated pictures, sound and still images on your idiot box would no longer be troublesome with the new Imation FlexLink HD2800-250W.

This new media server replicates animated pictures, sound and still images from PC, SD card and USB on the television. The unique FlexLink HD2800-250W features 250 GB storage memory, HDMI loading and IEEE 802.11a/b/g.

It also loads the wireless LAN of Ethernet. Although SD card slot is compatible with SD/SDHC card, it fails to connect with DLNA. Playback of the multimedia is possible without even copying the files from PC or SD card or one can also view the files while copying.

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Chinavasion has come up with its new UPnP media server, which allows you to fetch everything from your computer onto your home theater system. Media servers help the users to connect your TVs and communicate with the PC wirelessly. It can also submit other forms of connection due to its easiness.

"Media servers are an absolute must for people who dream of the day when they can surf the internet and order their groceries from their home theater system," said Rose Li.

The UPnP media server is better than other media servers because of its versatility and ability of easy-to-use. The users can use the media server as per their choice, as it can accept CF, SD cards, USBs, RCA inputs and a lot more. It is completely different from other conventional media servers, as you can watch or listen to songs and can also have a collection of videos by clicking a button.

Via: Chinavasion