Home Entertainment Systems

Blu-Ray has been around for a while now and has led me to ask myself this question - is blu-ray now the norm?

Although you can pick up Cheap Blu Ray Players, some priced just over the £100 mark, te higher spec models are still in the high £200 to even £400 mark and when it comes to a format where quality is the key, shelling out on a cheap budget model is not always for the best.

It is this point that makes me thing that more people are still buying DVD’s then are buying Blu-Ray discs, and I still feel DVD’s will have a place in the market even when Blu-Ray does become more popular, more accessible and possibly the norm. One factor that has helped the emergence of Blu-Ray is the inclusion in the Playstation 3 games console and the possibility of this also been included in next revisions on the Xbox 360 and Wii.

Still the whole idea of having a gaming machine to be the center of your home entertainment system and be there to play high quality movies still baffles me. Its like having an iPhone and playing games on it all the time instead of hainvg something like a DS or PSP to do that. It does the job is a fashion but no where near as well as a piece of kit whose primary goal is to offer you the best quality movie playback possible.

If you are in the market be sure to check out the different players and read some Blue Ray Player Reviews before making your purchase. You still find that there are plenty of makes and models to choose from and a quick read and search will often show you of any known faults or issues certain players might have.

It seems that every new piece of tech seems to be implementing one thing across the board - Touch Screens.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the little touch screen on my Nintendo DS and my iPhone but I have the feeling sat writing things on my blog and doing things on my desktop machine might seem a little awkward when I know I can touch the screen. This is exactly what you can do with the new range of HP TouchSmart all-in-one PC’s.

I have the feeling that no real work would get done for at least a month - and that’s if there aren’t any touch screen orientated games bundled with the new OS Windows 7. Which of course seems to have a thing for, you guessed it - Touch Screens.

Maybe its Microsofts fault? They get the blame for everything still, right? I mean it must have been over a year ago when I saw this video for Microsoft Surface:

I feel like I’m not quite ready to leave the way I know and love computing. They can stick it in my home aswell as my traditional PC, even put it on my fridge and cooker - but not my PC yet.

How about you?

The decreasing prices of LCD televisions has resulted in larger screens for most households. The most used location for these to be placed, estimated at 75%, is above the fireplace in the main room of the house. The increase in the screen size has caused both women and designers have been having stern issues with a 50-70? black glass object as the central piece and main focal point of the living room.

Although it is only a visual or mechanical change when the television is hidden, to many it can change the entire atmosphere of any room. Even when the television display has been turned off, attention is either consciously or unconsciously drawn towards the blank screen. This is not just a figment of peoples imaginations, it is real, and it can have a direct effect on both the decor and atmosphere of the room.

Concealment devices are more often than not custom made furniture. Due to both tv sizes and room measurements there is no single solution that will work for everyone, hence why such systems often cost more than the TV itself. The justification is that the time, money and creative effort spent in making the room look great is not masked by trying to make a 50″ piece of black glass blend easily into the room decor.

If you were to look into some detailed market research you would see there are a a number of solutions to get around this problem. All with certain pros and cons. However the most commonly used option is usually a mechanical tv lift.

A television lift effectively combines both an item of furniture and a TV stand. It gives the user the ability to switch between viewing a piece of general furniture or viewing the television. This is done using a remote controlled lifting device which is fitted inside the furniture. When activated this mechanism will cause a steel lift to move which in turn will cause the TV to gently rise from the furniture and effectively turn it into a TV stand.

This operating system effectively solves all the problems bought to attention by a home designer. The rooms look and feel does not have to be compromised, just modified in a way which cannot be seen unless controlled. The television no longer has to be in full view unless you require it to be. As well as this there are vast security benefits which mean your television is a lot less likely to be thieved or broken in the every day movement throughout your home.

Conclusion

No matter what efforts TV manufacturers put into their aesthetic design, they can’t solve the problem of having a large blank screen take over a room when the TV is off. It is no surprise then, that demand for tv stands which offer concealment solutions has been doubling every year for a while now.

By educating themselves about concealment products, companies such as TDK can offer the home owner a solution allows a large TV to be hidden within the decor using a TV lift, while maintaining the visual design of the room. It is a win-win situation for both parties.

There is a new digital picture frame on the market these days. Big deal you say, “You seen one you seen them all, right?” Well, this little beauty is a bit different. Actually it is a lot different, this one doubles as a portable DVD player as well. Featuring the LG DP889 DVD Player / Digital Photo Frame which weighs in at just about 2.2 pounds total. It comes with a crystal clear eight inch LCD display and lets you browse pictures stored on a CD, DVD, 3 different kinds of memory cards or even a USB flash drive. It comes equipped with enough built-in memory to hold up to 250 pictures without any additional media at all. The LG DP889 DVD Player / Digital Photo Frame also has built in stereo speakers, audio / video inputs and outputs allowing you to connect to an assortment of other devices and dual headphone jacks. When you are finished looking through all your favorite photos simply plop in a DVD and enjoy three and a half hours of uninterrupted movie time with the rechargeable battery pack which is included. If you are looking for either a digital picture frame or portable DVD player than this is the newest and coolest gadget for you. The LG DP889 DVD Player / Digital Photo Frame comes with a standard one year warranty and LG is selling them at the retail price of $279.95. You should be able to pick one up for around $200 if you shop around online.

A bit of good news for owners of TiVo Series3, HD, and HD LX DVRs. Netflix began testing its streaming music service on select owners and will roll it out to all customers come December.

The nice thing about this streaming servie is that it comes at no extra charge to those with an unlimited Netflix subscription plan. The plan starts at just $8.99/month.

According to Netflix, the Netflix library includes 12,000 movies and TV shows. Viewers will go to the Netflix site, add programming to their Instant Queues, then view them through the TiVo device, with full TiVo functionality.  Sign up for updates here.

Via Home Theater Magazine

Is Apple’s next step in media hardware domination networked high-definition television sets? It would be a television with Apple TV  built in. Apple is probably barking up the right tree here as they’ve made their equipment user-friendly, and since everyone has itunes on their computer, it would be easy to get people to use the TV’s that makes it easy for them to play their media in the living room. Think the ipod revolution, but with HDTV.

Via CrunchGear

The MX-780HD might be one of the hottest Linux Powered Gadgets around, but it also be one of the best devices to bring all of the media on your PC into the living or media room.

The MX-780HD works seamlessly with PC or Mac operating systems, and has a built in hard drive, which goes beyond the streaming functionality that is traditional. Localized technology provides problem free 1080p decoding, and easy transfer is possible because the device acts as a storage unit when connected via USB or NAS over a network.

Easy to use and able to handle all of your media with one simple device, then the MX-780HD is for you.

Price $309 - Buy Now