Recently Filed in Set Top Boxes

For legendary blues guitarist BB King, the thrill isn’t gone when it comes to touring. The 83-year-old “King of the Blues” is still on the road with his famous Gibson guitar “Lucille” performing 100 concerts per year. And King gets from gig to gig on more than just a simple set of wheels. King rides in a $1.4 million, 45–foot luxury motorcoach that has more than $200,000 worth of electronics inside, making it a center of inspiration for laying down tracks, reviewing audio and video,… View this story
AV Components • Blu-ray • Digital Media Servers • Multiroom Audio • Multiroom Video • Receivers • Set Top Boxes • Displays • HDTV • Lighting Control • Cool Homes

Roku is adding two set-top boxes and new content channels in the coming weeks. The step-up Roku HD-XR ($130) and Roku SD ($79) will join the popular Roku HD Player. The Roku HD-XR, like the Roku HD, features 720p HD playback, optical audio output and HDMI connection. However, the Roku HD-XR has upgraded the WiFi to b/g/n and added a USB 2.0 port, which Roku says there currently is no use for. The Roku SD loses the HD outputs of the other two models, offering… View this story
AV Components • Digital Media Stores • Set Top Boxes • Miscellaneous • Web Services

When most people head to Best Buy to snag a deal the week something is released, it’s usually a Blu-ray, DVD, or CD player.  This week you can also grab a deal on the Western Digital WDTV Live for $119, or $30 below MSRP.  This just-released follow-up to the popular WDTV HD is a small form-factor media player that handles nearly any audio and video container/codec combo you can throw at it, including video up to 1080p.  The original WDTV had some shortcomings that bugged… View this story
Set Top Boxes • Deals • Product News

Do you have cable? Do you have a Motorola or Scientific Atlanta cable box? Might I suggest getting rid of those slow, buggy, low capacity cable-company boxes and stepping into the light known as TiVo. Strait from Tivo.com you can currently pick up refurbished TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL DVRs for 25-33% off their new MSRP.  These refurbished units come direct from TiVo with the same 1-year warranty and 30-day money-back guarantee as a brand new units. The TiVo HD is not only a… View this story
AV Components • Digital Recorders • Set Top Boxes • Deals • Product News

We’ve known for a while that Apple TV is a mere “hobby” for the company, so maybe today’s store shuffling just emphasizes that ... or maybe Apple has something up its sleeve. The Apple store today has apparently slimmed its Apple TV offerings in half, from the 40GB and 160GB models down to just the 160GB. So the bad news, for now it seems, is that you can’t grab a cheaper entry model for your viewing and listening pleasures. The good news, though, is that… View this story
Digital Media Servers • Set Top Boxes • Product News

It seems that every TV or settop box manufacturer is now supporting Netflix for their CE products. Enter the Netflix menu and you can review and select titles in your Watch Instantly queue – from the convenience of your couch. But the Netflix experience is different across all of the different products. Which is the best? I’ve been lucky enough to incorporate into my home theater several different devices with Netflix Watch Instantly support: TivoHD Roku Player Samsung BD-P2550 Blu-ray Player Windows Vista Media Center… View this story
Blu-ray • Digital Media Stores • Set Top Boxes • Web Services • Movies and Music • Reviews • Product News

Panasonic is finally bringing Amazon Video On Demand (VOD) to its 2009 Viera Cast Blu-ray Players. The service said to originally be coming out in May 2009 is now available via a free software update. Amazon VOD will be available on the full line of 2009 Viera Cast Blu-ray players, including the DMP-BD60, DMP-BD70V, DMP-BD80 and DMP-B15, which is a portable Blu-ray player. Amazon VOD on Viera Cast offers: A library of more than 45,000 titles More than 1,000 HD titles Instant playback Access of… View this story
AV Components • Blu-ray • Digital Media Stores • Set Top Boxes • Home Theater • Product News

Since you typically don’t do all of your TV watching on just one set in the home, Digeo just made your viewing habits a little easier. The company released its summer update, which includes the Moxi Mate digital media player that can tap into media stored on the main Moxi HD DVR. For the initial release you won’t be able to schedule recordings from the Mate, but it sits on your home network and feeds video to a secondary room, such as a bedroom or… View this story
AV Components • Digital Recorders • Multiroom Video • Set Top Boxes • Product News

Q. I seem to recall that I saw a new product that would ‘broadcast’ an HDMI signal within your home. If I am not totally insane, could you provide a reference to the product as well as any comments you may have on it? - George, Calif. A. CE Pro senior editor Robert Archer provides the following: Hi George, I am not sure what you mean by “broadcast,” but there are distribution devices on the market that will allow you to send an HDMI signal… View this story
HDMI • Multiroom Video • Set Top Boxes • Home Theater • Ask a Pro

It’s always kind of fun to sift through press releases and pull out nuggets of info that don’t get prioritized but, because of what you’re interested in, stick out with you for personal reasons. Guess that’s why I was pretty stoked to see that Pandora Internet radio will be coming to the latest Samsung Blu-ray home theater system (read the full press release here). Samsung’s new HT-BD3252 looks like one of the best HTIB (home theater in a box) systems going—you get Blu-ray, Samsung’s auto… View this story
Blu-ray • Set Top Boxes • Web Services • Product News

Is the Roku Digital Video Player the best electronics bargain going today? We know how heated things are getting between manufacturers and content providers these days when it comes to vying for your digital media streams. And we also love how this competition is giving consumers new options seemingly every day. The big winner might be Roku, which at $99 is a cheaper option than boxes from Vudu and ZeeVee (though we really like those too), for example, or a Netflix-streaming Blu-ray player, AppleTV or… View this story
Digital Media Servers • Set Top Boxes • Product News

Say you have a Control4 home automation system and a Slingbox remote-viewing product. You’re on the road and you want to check in on your house. Easy enough: Just pull up your personal Control4 Web site to check the temperature at your place, play with the lights and check out the surveillance video. Now you want to watch Dexter, recorded on your home cable box. Close the Control4 window and open the Slingbox window. What a drag! Now you can do it all through the… View this story
Set Top Boxes • Home Control Systems