Archive for January, 2008

Over the last year, the clear leader in Blu-ray and HD-DVD playback on a computer has been Cyberlink’s PowerDVD Ultra. Finally, this month someone else has thrown their hat into the HD realm: Arcsoft with their release of TotalMedia Theatre. According to Arcsoft, TotalMedia Theatre supports Blu-ray discs, AVCHDs, CDs, VCDs, and a variety of [...]

One of the more interesting CES press releases that flew under the radar was Auzentech’s announcement of the HDMI X-Tension. Sound cards have always been the weak link in an HTPC set-up, especially with the lack of HDMI 1.3 and Dolby True HD/DTS HD support. The HDMI X-Tension will be the first [...]

I recently purchased a HDHomerun (about $170) to watch and record unencrypted television shows from my cable provider. My cable modem is right next to my computer so I just added a splitter and connected a coaxial cable to the HDHomerun and cable modem.
Setting up the HDHomerun requires two steps: 1) find unencrypted [...]

Sony announced the replacement to the VGX-XL3 media center pc, which is the dual CableCard TP25. The VGX-Xl3 was a sleek machine that looked like a high-end A/V component. It’s main flaws were the lack of an adequate video card and having only one digital cable tuner, instead of the expected two.
The [...]

Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra. the only viable option for watching Blu-ray or HD-DVDs on a computer, has been certified by the Blu-ray Disc Association to support playback of BD-Video Profile 1.1 specification. From the press release:
CyberLink PowerDVD Ultra featuring support for BD-Video Profile 1.1 format allows the playback of high-definition movie content with multiple [...]