The Home Theater designation includes the following features as part of its specifications:

• Sound Space Expander is a sound stage enhancer that produces a wide stereo image and in the process improves the separation of instruments without diminishing the center of the mix.
• Natural Bass is a bass enhancement system for speaker and headphones that provides up to an octave of downward extension in the bass response of most speakers.
• Dolby Pro Logic(R) IIx creates a vivid 7.1-channel surround sound experience from any stereo (two-channel), 5.1, or 6.1 movie, music, TV, or game audio source.
• Dolby Digital Live converts any audio signal from a PC or game console into Dolby Digital for easy connection to home theater systems through a single digital cable.
• Dolby Headphone technology creates a personal surround sound experience using any set of headphones and makes listeners feel like the action is happening all around them.

Hopefully, Dolby can infuse some excitement into the audio portion of the home theater pc. Besides DRM, audio processing is one of the weakest areas of an HTPC. One coherent certification can help simplify the market for the average HTPC enthusiast.

Update: Slysoft is currently offering AnyDVD HD at a 20% discount through April 20. Now is a great time to get a copy.

Slysoft has updated AnyDVD HD, with apparently some type of “artifical intelligence.” From the press release that has been sitting in my inbox for a couple of days:

With today’s release of AnyDVD 6.1.8.4, SlySoft has once again delighted its customers with the delivery of another masterpiece in the never-ending battle with manufacturers of DVD copy protection systems. The new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Scanner analyzes the entire DVD within just a few seconds and through the utilization of voluminous rules and exceptions “decides” dynamically exactly how to circumvent the copy protection on this particular DVD.

AnyDVD is one of two tools I know of to rip the latest generation of high definition DVDs. I tend not to like when a computer program attempts to do things in a black box but I have yet to test the new version of this software.

Being able to rip movies to a hard drive is, in my opinion, a necessity for any home theater, especially with cool plugins like My Movies. AnyDVD is a tool that can help you do just that.

Belkin International, Inc., announces its new n52te, a hybrid gaming keyboard built to dominate in FPS (first-person shooter), MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-playing games), and RTS (real-time strategy) computer games. An improvement over its predecessor, the critically acclaimed n52, the n52te is enhanced by Razer’s killer performance software, which boasts a competitive advantage with portable player profiles, robust customization tools, and cool blue backlighting.

The n52te SpeedPad offers the following features:

• Backlit keypad and scroll wheel for total control in dark conditions
• Enhanced tactile feedback and button responsiveness for rapid key presses
• 15 fully programmable keys built for speed
• Adjustable soft-touch wrist pad for maximum comfort and endurance
• Programmable 8-way thumb pad with removable joystick
• Nonslip rubber pads grip in place for aggressive fragging
• Easily toggle between 3 keymap states

It retails for just under $70.