Posts with tag hands on
Popcorn Hour's latest all-accessing all-playing media device has finally made its way into our hands, and while we haven't had nearly enough time to put the C-200 completely through its paces, we did spare a moment to take some pictures and play a movie or two. Other than using RF (no line of sight needed here) the remote is mostly unchanged from the earlier A-110, though we have had some issues with the box not responding to inputs, tightening the antenna seems to have made things better for now. Slipping a SATA hard drive in requires only the lightest tug on the drive bay door, it really couldn't be easier -- we'll have to see how a Blu-ray drive fits soon. With the exception of slight noise from the HDD we put in, the C-200 is nearly silent in operation, and home theater nuts will be glad to know that bright blue display up front can be dimmed all the way to off. An extra USB port front and back hasn't hurt usability either, though it would have been nice if it recognized a keyboard when we were setting up new RSS feeds. Thanks to DLNA support, Windows 7 Play To functionality worked sufficiently playing media, but we couldn't get the titles to display properly on the C-200 whether initiated from the PC or on the box itself. So far it's played everything we've thrown at it, from legitimately downloaded trailers to less MPAA-authorized material. Anything you want to see tested as part of our full review? Leave ideas in the comments while you check out the pictures.
Video: Philips' 3rd gen Aurea 'egg' remote gets put through the paces
What better to complement your new trippy, edge-glowing Philips 3rd gen Aurea HDTV than an egg-shaped remote? Our friends at Engaget Spanish hunted down the controller and walked away impressed at its build construction and design -- but not before capturing numerous pictures and footage, of course. There was some concern with the rigidity of the buttons, but nothing worth squabbling over on this bundled device. Hit up the read link for the full, machine-translated impressions, or affix your gaze on the pics and video below.
Mitsubishi's 3D-ready and Unisen HDTV lines in the flesh

Toshiba REGZA ZV650, XV648 and SV670 HDTVs hands-on

Philips announces US availability for 2009 home entertainment line (with hands-on!)

While checking these very sets out, we noticed that the factory settings left the colors a bit blown out and overly sharp -- though, this practice is far too common in HDTV companies anyway. Nothing like wowing those Best Buy shoppers at first, only to sear their retinas at home, right? All kidding aside, the panels looked superb, and the A-B comparison mode made tweaking the settings a breeze. Hop on past the break for the rest of the details, and give our gallery a glance for a closer look at the whole lot.
Compro showcases VideoMate T1000W network media streamer
We can't tell you precisely how much we've been yearning for an L-shaped media streamer, but we can tell you that Compro has made the hopes, dreams and wishes of quite a few content junkies come true with the debut of its VideoMate T1000W. Showcased late last week at SecuTech Expo 2009, this network media streamer is an all-in-one solution that handles content shuffling, TV tuning, internal storing of files, expansion ports, WiFi access, support for USB DVD players and even BitTorrent files. As expected, pretty much any file format you could think of is supported here, though the DVB-T tuner won't do us Yanks much good in the homeland. Fudzilla asserts that the unit should hit shelves overseas this May, though the £200 ($293) price tag just might scare away most potential buyers.
[Thanks, TheLostSwede]
[Thanks, TheLostSwede]
Amazon Video on Demand HD on Roku Video Player hands-on
Roku hooked us up with an early preview of Amazon Video on Demand in HD for its Video Player, and while we didn't have much time to poke around, but what we saw was mostly impressive. Video took a little longer to buffer in than Amazon SD or Netflix's HD streams on our 10Mbps cable connection, picture quality was noticeably better, although still not at Blu-ray levels. Apart from the HD content, the experience on the Roku box is essentially same as always: there's still no search in the interface, so be prepared to hunt around for what you want -- anything other than popular or blockbuster titles requires a little digging. Selection and pricing seem to be about on par with Apple TV / iTunes, but you're getting a little less for your money, since audio is stereo-only compared to Apple's 5.1 encoding. That's a potential dealbreaker for us, but it might not matter to you, and Roku's $99 Video Player is now an undeniably appealing way to beef up your HD content options. Short hands-on video after the break.
Roku Amazon Video on Demand hands-on
Roku was nice enough to upgrade our player for Amazon Video on Demand a little early, and we're basically impressed -- although we're not in love with SD video and stereo audio, it's hard to complain about a free service update. Actually, that might be the best thing about the newly-rebranded Roku Video Player: Roku's opening the platform to third-party channels, so eventually the $99 box will be able to stream from all kinds of sources. Amazon is just the first additional channel built using the new tools, and for the most part, things work just like Netflix -- the interface has been only slightly modified to enable selecting content from the box itself instead of from your online queue. We're talking really slightly: there's no search interface, so it's sort of like having lots of categorized queues. One minor complaint: the rental clock starts when you purchase content, not when you start playback, which isn't necessarily the most flexible setup, but it makes sense given the streaming-only nature of the service, we suppose. That said, purchasing is easy and fast, and we had no problems streaming in the highest-available quality on our 10Mbps cable connection -- Max Payne didn't look super-awesome in SD, but it was certainly watchable. Bottom line? It's perfect for a bedroom, but we're way more particular about the home theater -- Roku tells us the Video Player can actually do 1080i and 5.1 if the content is there, so hopefully we'll see someone leverage those capabilities and turn this thing into a $99 Apple TV / Vudu killer. Quick little demo vid after the break.
TiVo Netflix hands-on on Engadget Classic!
TiVo was nice enough to hit us with the Netflix-enabling Fall Service Update a little early, and we're pretty impressed so far -- check out all the deets over on Engadget Classic!
Video: Hands-on with LG's MPH mobile broadcast standard





















































