TVSquad

If you haven't checked out Ken Burns' documentary The National Parks: America's Best Idea on PBS yet, now you can actually buy it. The 12-hour series hit DVD and Blu-ray on Oct. 6, and offers a stunning look at our national parks, including Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, the Everglades, and the Gates of Arctic in Alaska.

When you think about it, it's truly amazing how these natural wonders have become part of our lives, even if we've never been to them. Burns covers 150 years of the parks, starting with the concept in the mid-1800s and featuring the voices of Tom Hanks, Andy Garcia, Sam Waterston and others.

The cool thing about the DVD / Blu-ray sets is that you get three hours of bonus material, including a making-of featurette, Musical Journeys Through the National Parks, Contemporary Stories and Outtakes.

Why must Panasonic, Sony, Samsung and that lot constantly develop new technologies in an attempt to break my bank account? First it was things like flat television and high definition. Now, Panasonic is joining the ranks of other television manufacturers to produce a high definition television that can handle both 2D and 3D images. But this time, they're enlisting Hollywood to help them sell it.

The idea is that Hollywood is producing more 3D films and this technology will enable the sale of 3D DVDs. It could even potentially be the feature to push Blu-ray sales to the level of regular DVDs (assuming it's only on Blu-ray).

Do we really need to be able to watch 3D movies at home? It sounds like one of those things that seem extraneous at first then once you have it in the home you have no idea how you lived without it. 3D television has been talked about for years now. We'll have to see if this is the event that pushes it more to the mainstream.

Star Trek fans who bought the first season of the remastered original series on Blu-ray can now enjoy new enhanced features for the discs online this week.

The online portal is a clever way for CBS/Paramount to make the Star Trek: "The Original Series Season One" a gift that keeps on giving. The Blu-ray issue included the enhanced CG visual effects that accompanied the most recent remastering.

Since the odds are only hardcore fans drop the money to buy an entire season set of the original series just to see a clearer picture and new special effects, CBS/Paramount obviously wants to appeal to such fans with even more in-depth commentary than the discs already provide.

Dear People Who Make Lost:

I like your show. It is a lot of fun. But sometimes it is confusing. Maybe someday you can tell the story in order.

Love,
A Lost Fan

How sweet would that be. I was watching the latest Faraday extravaganza and thinking about all the stories we've gotten through the years, the flash forwards and flashbacks and jumps through time. It's getting pretty hard to keep track of what happened before and after what.

So you've got that new high definition television in the living room, your 120 gig TiVo recording all of your favorite shows and a cable box with more channels than a Roman aqueduct.

Think you've reached the pinnacle of home entertainment? The Consumer Electronics Show would beg to differ.

Some 3-D TV's popped up on the convention floor and the advent of the burgeoning technology is starting to create a bit of buzz that it could become the next step over HD TV.

While solid state memory is all the rage in laptops these days, it's not something you see in media center computers very often. That's because while solid state disks are usually faster and more durable than old fashioned hard disks, they're much more expensive. Like, you can pick up a half terabyte hard drive for cheaper than a 32GB SSD.

But Okoro Media Systems' latest PC gives you the best of both worlds, with a 32GB SSD for the operating system and other important files, and a 1TB HDD for storing music, videos, and all your other media goodies. The OMS-ZX100 also packs a 3GHz quad core processor, 3GB of RAM, an NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT video card with HDMI output, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD playback, and Windows Vista Ultimate. You can also get the case painted in "any automotive color," which is a nice perk that doesn't quite make up for the fact that this sucker will set you back more than a used car. Prices start at $5995.

[via Engadget]

High end home theater PC makers Niveus and VidaBox are treading into shady waters by adding features that either enable or compliment ripping HD-DVD and Blu-Ray discs. Now, in theory there's nothing wrong with using software that can rip video from a disc, if it's a disc you own the rights to, like say your wedding video. But generally speaking, renting a movie from NetFlix and then ripping it is a no no.

But that hasn't stopped VidaBox from adding the option to rip high definition movies to its media center computers. The software won't play encrypted video streams, but if you've got third party software that can rip encrypted movies, VidaBox's software will let you watch your videos.

Niveus is taking a different approach, by developing a new media management program that will let users watch any video saved on their computer, whether that video is a recorded TV show or a ripped DVD or Blu-Ray disc. Because the Niveus Movie Gallery doesn't inlcude any ripping software, Niveus reps are confident they won't run into any legal troubles.

Niveus's software also has a nifty feature that displays ripped high definition movies when you're using your main computer but hides them from view when you're using a Media extender device. That makes a lot of sense, since ripped high definition videos will tend to be huge files that might not play very well over a network connection. The Movie Gallery application also has a recommendation engine that will show similar titles you might want to watch. Niveus plans to release a beta version of the application in a few weeks.

Someone should really come up with standard keyboard shortcuts for media programs. Because it would make life a whole lot simpler when you're trying to configure a remote control to work with your computer's various media players. But until that day comes, Missing Remote has some tips on configuring Cyberlink PowerDVD to work properly with Windows Media Center and a standard Media Center remote control.

PowerDVD is the software that comes with many DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-Ray drives. And it works pretty well if you're sitting right in front of your computer. But if you've got a computer running Windows Media Center, you probably want to be able to sit on the couch and watch your movies with the aid of your trusty remote control. Unfortunately, Windows Media Center won't automatically recognize PowerDVD and add an option to launch the program to your menus. Fortunately, There's a third party plugin that'll do the trick. It launches PowerDVD when you click the button, and when you close PowerDVD you're returned to Windows Media Center.

So far, so good. But if you want to actually use a remote control with PowerDVD, you'll find that a standard media center remote doesn't work properly with Blu-Ray discs. You could remap all the buttons on your remote using software like LM Gestion, but you really just need one or two keys to be fixed. So Missing Remote has posted a configuration file that should work for most users.

Or as one user points out in the Missing Remote forums, you could also try ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre instead of PowerDVD. It works perfectly well with a Media Center remote control. But it also costs a good $90. And you'll have to figure out how to add a button to your Windows Media Center menus.

Sony's convinced that Blu-Ray is the future. So much so that the company is dropping support for DVDs in all future personal video recorders it releases in Japan. The comapny also announced 4 new Blu-Ray recorders for the Japanese market, capable of recording up to 16 hours of high definition MPEG-4 video per 50GB disc.

While the earliest TiVo models were able to store fewer hours of programming, 16 hours doesn't really cut it these days, so of course, each of Sony's new machines also has a hard drive, ranging in size from 250GB to 500GB.

While dropping DVD recording support might seem like a big move, there's less competition for high-def optical disc recorders than standard def right now. And if Sony is seen as an innovator early on, they could establish their position as a market leader when the rest of the world realizes DVDs are about as cool as VHS tapes. Unless of course, the rest of the world prefers HD-DVD.

If Alienware's $2000 Hangar18 media center left you wanting more, the high end gaming and HTPC computer maker has got something for you.

Alienware took the wraps off of its new HD Media Server system at the CEDIA tech show in Denver today. This rack-mountable system comes packed with up to four terabytes of storage, 1080p output via HDMI, 7.1 channel audio, Blu-Ray and CableCard support.

No pricing or availability has been announced, but Alienware is gearing this system toward high-end home media center installers. So even though at first blush it doesn't look like much more than a rack-mountable Hanger18 media center with a bit more storage potential, we suspect it's going to set you back significantly more than $2000.

[via Engadget]

Home theater PC makers HiPe are updating their eMage-N line of high definition media centers. No, they're not changing the silly name, just offering up a few more features.

For example, you can now get native HDMI output, and a combo Blu-Ray/HD-DVD player.

HiPe is also offering a wireless LTB Q-bean microphone headset for issuing voice commands to your PC. HiPe's eMage-N HD systems start at $1199, but the sky is the limit with options including DVD changers, LCD/Plasma televisions, 12.1 inch touchscreens for the computer case, and up to 15 terabytes of storage space.

Think your home theater PC is pretty cool because you can record two high definition shows at the same time? Harmon Kardon is displaying an HTPC at IFA that can handle 8 simultaneous HD recordings.

Gizmodo managed to get a few details and snap a few pictures of hte DVC600, but we've got more questions than answers at the moment. Here's what we know. It will support Blu-Ray playback, sport custom Unix-based software, and cost between 3,000 and 4,000 Euros (or about $4,000 to $5500 US).

What we don't know is if the DVC600 will be available in the US, or what kind of high definition inputs it supports. Are you going to need to line up a series of HDTV antennas if this puppy ever hits the US, or will there be CableCard support?

We're probably putting the cart in front of the horse here though. Odds are this dreamy machine will only be available to Europeans with cash burning a hole in their pockets.

The Vaio LT HD is hardly the first all-in-one PC we've seen from Sony. But it does pack a few things we haven't seen before from one of these PC-in-a-monitor style computers:

• A Blu-ray burner
  
• ATI Digital Cable Tuner (for CableCard)

The Vaio LT also includes an impressive set of specs, inclduign a 22-inch 1680x1050 pixel wediscreen display, a 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, 802.11n, and an ATSC/NTSC TV tuner.

There's also a standard definition version that loses the Blu-Ray and CableCard features. Both models should be available in October, with the HD version weighing in at about $2900 and the SD model running about $1900.

[via CNet]

Can't decide whether to go for delicious HD-DVD or filling Blu-Ray support in your next media center PC? If you've got enough money burning a hole in your pocket, you don't have to decide. Inteset is offering an optional combo drive in its Maximus and Denzel media server PCs.

Both machines include CyberLink's PowerDVD Ultra software, 1080p output, and 7.1 channel surround sound. There's also the usual array of inputs and outputs including DVI, VGA, component, S-video, USB, Firewire, and antenna inputs for the HDTV and standard def TV tuners.

Inteset doesn't list the price on their website, so you know these puppies don't come cheap.

[via Engadget]

Windows Media Center provides a 10-foot interface for recording, organizing, and watching television programs. And what Media Center is to TV, the My Movies plugin is to DVDs. The popular program which lets you organize your ripped DVD collection is constantly under development, and the recently released public beta of My Movies 2.31 includes a number of nifty new features, including support for ripped HD-DVDs and Blu-ray discs.

Now, we're not going to bother telling you how to rip or download those movies, because that would be illegal. But here are some more updates in My Movies 2.31:

• Add HD-DVD and Blu-ray metadata (such as cover art, disc IDs, etc) to your library and associate it with ripped movies
• Use My Movies data in Media Center's "DVD library" if you prefer the default interface
• Movie information now includes aspect ratios and sound track information
  

[via FloppyHead]