Computing – Page 4 – Devices View

When did my day job kill my hobby?

November 7, 2007 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

I’ve been trying to catch up with my reading – nearly a year’s worth of home theater magazines have piled up. One thing I’ve noticed is an increased emphasis on flat panel TVs – no surprise there, as that category accounts for an enormous amount of sales activity. What I found odd was the sheer amount of coverage mobile devices now get in these publications. Sure, I expect convergence in Sound & Vision, which has steadily moved in that direction for years. But Home Theater Magazine? Aside from the odd TV with an SD card slot, what do digital cameras …

Computing

Revisting Vista

August 10, 2007 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

My former colleague Joe Wilcox wrote a fairly damning column on Microsoft Vista yesterday, and I generally agree with his overall analysis. I have also written here in the past that I simply could not get Vista running reliably as a media center upgrade. And yet, somewhat surprisingly, my Vista box is now running well: no crashes, no problems connecting to peripherals, no problems. Four things have contributed to the updated (and happier) state of affairs: I reinstalled a fresh copy of Vista. That’s never a good solution, but my alternative was reinstalling XP (or trashing the box altogether), so …

Accessories / Computing

Logitech MX Air Blends HT and PC

July 13, 2007 - by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Logitech introduced a new "mouse" yesterday, and I put "mouse" in quotation marks because it’s an interesting product that blends a PC mouse with a gyroscopic sensor (think Nintendo Wii’s controller and you have the right idea) and software that can be used as a remote control for watching media content on a computer. There have been products like this in the past, notably from Gyration (a company that got bought by Thomson in 2004). A bunch of years back when I was heading home theater research at JupiterResearch I wrote a report where I recommended their Media Center accessory …

Computing

Love Vista, Just Can’t Recommend Upgrading to It

March 8, 2007 - by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Microsoft sent over a copy of Vista Ultimate and I upgraded my Media Center test box to put it through its paces. I have had mixed results. First, the positive. Vista is building on XP Media Center, which was already a good media platform. XP Media Center 2005 Edition crossed over the threshold of "good enough" to serve as a PVR instead of a TiVo or ReplayTV. I found it quite stable, though it still needs an antivirus subscription, and works best as a DVR when used almost exclusively for TV rather than combination work/TV/test box with all the software …

Computing / Industry

Apple TV Knocking off Cable?

January 29, 2007 - by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

Alan Graham proposes that Apple’s Apple TV is aiming at the heart of the cable TV business model: Is Apple Out to Kill Tivo? by ZDNet‘s Alan Graham — Yeah, I’m calling it. I think Apple (and others) are about to send Cable TV and Tivo a clear message…your time is almost up. The Web 2.0 world is about to kick the door in and escort the old methodology to pasture. And I think it is going to happen pretty quickly. Don’t let the […] It’s well argued, and there’s no question that Apple TV is a TiVo competitor, but …

Accessories / Audio / Computing

LIVEDigitally Posts Avi’s Holiday Gift Guide

December 22, 2006 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Yes, it’s been a long time since the last post here at Home Theater View, but that’s not because I haven’t been writing. My Last Minute Non-Obvious Holiday Gift Guide has just been posted over at LIVEDigitally. As I write this, there is only one day left to Chanukah and a couple of shopping days before Christmas. I figure there’s no need for a last minute gift list with obvious entries. Let’s face it, if you didn’t already get an HDTV or MP3 player for your home theater and gadget-loving giftees, you don’t need me to tell you that you …

Audio / Computing / Industry

Sonos Tries to Market “The Experience”

July 11, 2006 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

Sonos has built a flash version of its music controller for online demos. It’s neat, and was probably worth the investment it took to build because the UI (depicted below) is a key part of the Sonos value proposition. However, one of the more interesting pieces of feedback I received from my Sonos review was from people who wanted to know why Sonos was worth a price premium over simply sticking an iPod and a speaker dock in each room. There are good answers to that question, but the experience is different, and that doesn’t come across in an answer …

Audio / Computing / DVD / Industry

What it takes to launch a new media format

July 6, 2006 - by Avi Greengart - Leave a Comment

JupiterKagan’s Michael Gartenberg has a great post about the three elements needed to successfully launch a new consumer media format. He concludes that neither HD-DVD or Blu-Ray measures up. -avi Full disclosure: I created the diagram that Michael uses to illustrate his point back when I was an analyst at what was then called JupiterResearch and he was my Research Director; it was for a report on next generation audio formats.

Computing / DVD

Sony Kills Blu-Ray Advantage with PS3 Pricing

May 9, 2006 - by Avi Greengart - 1 Comment

When assessing the relative strength of HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray for high definition disc format war handicapping, I have always been quick to point out that DVD is the likely successor to DVD, as it is "good enough" for most consumers and addresses a larger installed base of non-HDTVs in addition to HDTV sets with decent anamorphic ("enhanced for widescreen TV") performance. But the other thing I have noted time and time again is that Sony’s Playstation 3 (PS3) was a potential trojan horse, bringing Blu-Ray playback to the masses. At E3 today, Sony announced the pricing and availability for the …

Audio / Computing

Sonos System Review

May 1, 2006 - by Avi Greengart - 20 Comments.

I’ll admit it up front – one of the key reasons I run Home Theater View is to get early looks at products like the Sonos system. I have been following Sonos since well before it launched. The concept is simple: Sonos takes the music you’re already storing and managing on your PC and streams it to multiple locations around your house. The controller looks like an iPod, and, like an iPod, nearly anyone can use it. Each Sonos unit becomes part of a separate wireless mesh network – no WiFi needed, and setup consists of pushing a couple of …