High Tech Household

Cool gadget? Apple’s first dud (recently)? There’s been a lot of buzz about the announcement last week of Apple’s new gadget.

• First, from the horse’s mouth: Apple’s official iPad page
• Some fairly mainstream press from CNN
• And a technical critique

In my own opinion, I think this is a disappointing release. I think it does everything that an iPhone or another smart phone does, but now it’s not big enough to put in your pocket. Also, the iPad might have been a great video chat device, but a camera was left out.

To carry it around, you’d need a bag for it, anyway So why not spend hundreds of dollars less, carry a couple of pounds more, and just use netbook or laptop? It’s definitely got the cool factor, but it just doesn’t seem usable enough to me to be of interest to anyone beyond the usual Apple enthusiasts.

For my money, I’d rather just use a smart phone. With today’s bright beautiful touchscreens, even reading for long periods is a pleasure on a smaller, more practical device.

Sensing the tone of this write-up, Mike’s wife found an interesting slideshow of prior Apple mis-steps.

A new technical standard, WHDI has been developed that promises wireless 1080p HD resolution at distances of up to 100 feet.  The standard utilizes the same bandwidth area as the newest WiFi protocol, 802.11n.  Gone will be the days of endless cables, and forcing all devices to be in proximity to your television.  Think of the possibilities:

• A computer across the room that uses WHDI to stream Hulu or YouTube to your TV
• A smaller, portable television for your kitchen that simply receives its signal from the wired cablebox
• A home media server stored in a closet used to archive movies and recorded television without taking up precious space on your TV cabinet or living room.

Upon first release, WHDI devices will likely be fairly expensive, but over time will come down in price.  The move to WHDI will likely have a similar effect on homes that WiFi has had, making it easier for people to create complex media ecosystems without complex wiring schemes.

I have been wanting to build a Home Theater PC for a while, but was waiting for the launch of Windows 7 to do so.  When Windows 7 was released on October 22, I started researching what I would need to assemble my own Home Theater PC, and began ordering parts.  Last week, the parts arrived for building my home theater PC using Windows 7 Media Center.  I spent a good deal of Friday night and Saturday putting it together and getting it ready for use.  By Saturday afternoon, I had the PC up and running and connected to my television.

Windows 7 Media Center has a lot to offer as a Home Theater PC (or really, a Home Entertainment PC), including Recording and Playback of TV (DVR-functionality), Movies and Netflix, Hulu and Internet TV, Music and Photo Libraries, and more, all controlled via a remote control and optional wireless keyboard.  Media Center also supports hardware (called Media Center Extenders) that allow you to stream your Media Center content to other TVs throughout your home.  What sets Media Center apart from just a traditional DVR or TiVo is the extensibility.  Third party developers, enthusiasts, and hobbiest programmers can create programs that extend the functionality of Windows 7 Media Center, much like people write apps for smart phones such as the iPhone and Google Android.   Best of all, it comes included in all editions of Windows 7.

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Plastic guitars? Drums taking up the living room? Is a band video game a good family game night activity? Read on for a his-and-hers review by my wife and me of Rock Band 2 and The Beatles: Rock Band.

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Last month, Brian wrote about his Home Theater PC which he created for streaming web content such as Hulu and YouTube to his television.  I have actively been planning to build my own Home Theater PC for some time, but I had hoped to build in DVR functionality so that I could use my PC as a TiVO-like box, which I could then use to store and burn recordings of shows and movies that I enjoyed.

It turns out that Microsoft Windows Vista included just such functionality through the Windows Media Center, a free Windows extender that allows you to run your media (whether audio, video, or pictures) by use of a remote control, and includes an Electronic Program Guide and ability to DVR, as long as you have a tuner card to which you can connect your incoming TV signal.  However, because of restrictions imposed by the Cable industry, digital cable signals are often scrambled, and require a cable box to be able to change channels.  Most digital cable cards have no ability to descramble these channels, making them useless for any digital cable setup.

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One of the biggest rackets in home tech is audio/video cabling. I recently got a shiny new LCD HDTV, and I wanted to upgrade the connection on our Nintendo Wii from an RCA composite cable (three plugs: yellow for video, red and white for stereo audio) to component (five plugs, three for video, two for audio) for progressive-scan video. I walked in to Fry’s and saw the Monster-brand item for about $50. Digging through the store, I found the MadCatz cable for $16. Sold.

So, sounds like I got a good deal, right? Monoprice.com has the same type of cable (as of this writing) for $3.36. Even with shipping, that’s a pretty huge savings. So how do some vendors charge $50 or even $16 for the same thing? The only things I can figure are laziness or ignorance.

An audio/video cable is basically just a length of insulated copper, so any claims of high-fidelity super-quality-iousness are generally bogus, except perhaps in the case of very long cables (as in, way more than the six feet needed in most home setups).

My Wii cable anecdote may have limited applicability, but as bad or worse is happening in the sales of HDMI cables. In general, you’re better off ordering audio/video cables online rather than being gouged at a brick-and-mortar retailer.

Internet Radio has come a long way in the past few years.  What started as something that a few people did as a hobby has now become a full-fledged entertainment option.  When Internet Radio started, people were restricted to listening on their home PCs or laptops.  While this may be a good option when working, it is hardly practical for those who like to listen on the go.

Podcasting helped to expand the possibilities of online radio to go by allowing users to download mp3 copies of an internet radio broadcast onto their iPods or other portable music player.  While this added some portability, in the last year, there has been an explosion of options for listening to Internet radio.

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My wife and I recently moved into our first house, so now that we’ve got the immediate issues good-enough-for-now (walls painted, wallpaper removed, water heater replaced, yadda yadda), we’ve each settled into more fun projects. My first project along those lines was setting up a home-theater PC. I’ve got a few observations from the experience.

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