Archive for the ‘Home Entertainment’ Category

Surround sound is pretty awesome. Watching any war or action flick is about ten times better when the explosions are going off behind you in your living room.

But setting up those tiny speakers everywhere isn’t for everyone. Mitsubishi has the cure for those of us who want a surround experience, with less hassle. Their new 149 iSP series LCDs have a 16-speaker sound bar to recreate that movie theatre aural assault.

The 46” model will run you $3300, while the 52” version (out soon) is $3700. While it won’t be as great as actual surround, if you’re in the market for a new set, this may be a good choice.

Sick of that ugly plastic iPod dock messing with the feng shui of your room? No? Me either. But for those who want a real stylish home for their tunes comes the wooden iPod dock.

They’re compatible with the old school and nano versions and come in walnut or birch finishes. Ranging from $90-$100, these babies hit in Japan next month. It’ll go perfect in my log cabin next my maple grain PS3 and oaken HDTV.

Looking for that special something to sway your decision towards buying a Blu-ray player? Well how’s about $100 to Wal-Mart?

Everyones favorite "now why didn’t I go to Target?" store is trying to sweeten the deal of buying a Blu-ray player while convincing you to then come back to their store and spend the additional $100. Don’t act all surprised. There has never really been a store that allowed you to use your new giftcard on the purchase that earned you it.

The promotion is running from June 8th to the 14th and even includes the PS3. That’s enough extra to buy the HDMI cable and Metal Gear Solid 4 for absolutely free. Then again, you do have to step into Wal-Mart.

Looks like we’ll be nearing the end of the DVD era within the next five years. Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, has pretty much put the time of death on the DVD at around five years from now in a further push to bring digital distribution into the light as the main form of service for a company the relies primarily on DVD distribution up to this point.

What does that mean for thee future of Netflix? Either a partnership in developing an home set top box, or their own version. Either way they’ll have to convince the average user to make the switch, or perhaps 5 years will be enough time for that to have happened on its own.

Find yourself yelling at your TV because the remote isn’t quite working right or perhaps you can’t even find it? Then maybe you should look into investing in the Toshiba ApriPoko Robot. What appears to be a combination of Squirtle and a microphone is actually capable of handling all your TV functions through voice alone. Apparently, just by using your remote in front of the robot, it will be able to learn your TV’s functions and then handle them without the need for your primitive remote anymore.

Seems to be more of a novelty toy then actually useful. Considering it’s not actually out yet, you’ll have plenty of time to determine if this pokemon looking device has more potential than is currently being displayed.

Slacker Portable Player just got a huge bump up through their new partnership with Devicescape. The already WiFi capable portable internet radio device was initially limited to only the wireless network that your main computer was connected to, will now be able to automatically take advantage of free WiFi services provided at places like Starbucks and Panera Bread.

You won’t even have to enter any information in either, and thank goodness for that because the device lacks any form of true input method. Devicescape has done all the hard work establishing the software to automatically connect the device just by being in range. All you need to do is download and install the newest firmware update and your good to go.

Unfortunate enough to be burned by both Betamax and HD-DVD going under but still not willing to give up on your investment? Fear not! For the price of one Blu-ray disc, you can up convert your Regular and Super Betamax to HD-DVD with just the press of a button! The player even comes equipped with a “Frakkin’ sweet remote” to further baffle those weak of will into continuing the fight.

And for those of you that prefer your Betamax setup over your HD-DVD one, the conversion goes both ways!

Source: ThinkGeek

If you’ve ever bought an audio or video product from Best Buy or Circuit City, you’ve most likely been attacked by associates who relentlessly attempt to sell you Monster equipment. Personally, I don’t notice a huge deal of difference between Monster and other products and think they’re actually a huge gimmick. So when I saw the iSoniCast Wireless Audio Bridge I actually laughed out loud.

For $100 you get a two part device that will allow you to do the same thing you’ve been doing with your FM Transmitter all these years, but Monster makes it! You’ll probably get a little bit of a better sound, but be realistic, if this is how you’re playing MP3’s you don’t care that much about the small improvement.

I’ve had my fair share of useless equipment pass through my hands over the years, especially gimmicky speaker systems. So when I received my review copy of the SurroundXi from Rapha, I instantly stereo typed the little battery powered tube speaker system as another POS that’d I’d surely be disappointed with. Boy was I wrong!

The device has a USB input that’s meant to take advantage of devices like thumb drives and iPod Shuffles, where you just plug them in an play the music directly off it. The sound volume is amazing and with it’s 4 AAA batteries or power supply, you’ll get at least 4 hours out of the device.

At a store price as high as $39.99 at K-Mart and Target, it’s a bit steep, but check out what you can grab it for on Ebay.

Caveat Emptor - The device is not capable of directly interfacing with anything besides usb input or line in. The other pictures lie.

In a good faith effort for those of us foolish enough to invest in one side of a format war, Best Buy has announced that anyone who had purchased an HD DVD player from their stores will be receiving a $50 Best Buy gift card. Customers should expect one gift card per system before the 1st of May. If you didn’t purchase your HD DVD player from Best Buy, you can also check here to see what they’ll offer you for the trade in of your now obsolete device.

Other retailers, like Circuit City, have also begun to offer their own sympathy programs as well but aren’t necessarily publicly advertising it.