Items Tagged With av distribution

Fancy sending HD FreeSat channels to the PCs and Macs around your home?  How about watching live telly over Wi-Fi on your iPad, without the need for a PC to be powered on to do the heavy lifting?  Well you're in luck as this little box of silvery goodness does all of the above and more.  It's the £180 Elgato EyeTV Netstream Sat and it is due to ship on 22nd November 2010, read on for all the details...

Frank Bauer, creator of Kelxi, yesterday released details of what he calls a 'Tech-Demo' that allows a new 2G Apple TV to connect to Plex Media Server.  Its very earlier days and its far from a one click install, but this is great news for anyone wanting to roll out multiple zones around the house feeding from their central Plex library.  Last night iphoneblogr.com released this video tutorial on how to install the proof-of-concept.  Also checkout the video below on how to jailbreak your Apple TV and the original forum post from Frank too...

The new Smart Wi-Fi system from AMX uses Ruckus BeamFlex technology which promises up to a four-fold improvement in signal range.  This is especially important in transmission of delay-sensitive applications such as streaming IP-based video or voice and results in longer range and more stable Wi-Fi connections that can support flicker-free multimedia viewing.  The AMX ZoneDirector at the heart of the system is a centrally-managed WLAN controller for the simplified management of the wireless environment...

Our second generation Apple TV just hit our desk so here are some quick unboxing photos for your viewing pleasure....

Apple have just announced their Apple TV replacement.  The device is one quarter the size of the first generation unit.  It has built in power supply, HDMI connector, Ethernet and 802.11n Wi-Fi.

Described as 'silent, cool and tiny' gone is the ability to purchase videos but now renting a TV episode costs $0.99 (ABC and Fox in the US to start with).

I addition to renting Movies and TV from Apple, US users can stream from NetFlix too.  YouTube HD is supported and FLickr and MobileMe plus local music and video too...

So you've just read our article on the release of Plex 9 (if not make sure to check it out here).  Around the time the devs were bringing Plex 9 to life, Apple announced the iPad.  The chat in the Plex inter-sanctum was feverish as people imagined how great it would be to have Plex 9 - with all its cover-art and meta data goodness, available on the new Apple tablet.  So a secret project within a secret project began and the beautiful Plex app was born...

While updates to Plex have slowed during 2010, the developers haven't been slacking.  On the contrary - they've been beavering away, putting in late nights around the world's time zones from Hawaii, North America, Europe and New Zealand.  The reason?  A project code named 'Alexandria', a ground-up rewrite of the library that's at the heart of the system and that promises to take the Plex Media Center to the next level...

If you are an AV integration nerd then here's a video to get you all hot under the collar.  The quick tour of the DigitalMedia AV Network labs shows where Crestron carry out their source compatibility testing.  Also shown are the large system racks and the distribution of audio, video, Ethernet, USB and control data over a single '8G' cable

If you've been promising yourself a Sonos multiroom music system for a while now, then this week may be what you've been waiting for.  Amazon are giving an additional 10% Off Sonos products for one week only.  Read on for the voucher discount code and the link...

With the UK Government still making noises about turning FM radio off by 2015 this tiny little fella may become a boon to many.  The View Quest's scroll wheel allows you to navigate over 12,000 radio station from around the world, in addition to over 7,000 podcasts.  Other highlights include a 1.8" LCD display with white LED light and a 15 hour Li-Ion Polymer battery.  The diminutive WIFI200 is just 72.9 x 125.1 x 23.1mm and weighs 160g  and is available now for under £80...

Here's a coupe of Sonos updates roled into one.  First a video from CEPro showing a sneak peek of the up-coming Sonos iPad app in action. 

The second video is from Danny over at Mavromatic showing off his latest project - an Adruino powered interface that allows a Sonos system to be controlled from Russound whole house audio system keypads...

The guys over at LinITX.com have introduced a new Mini-ITX NAS/Server Case with 4 Hot Swap 3.5" SATA drive bays.  The bare chassis is around £100 and is ideal for a home server/nas with a potentially huge capacity for all your media. There's an internal 2.5" drive bay too for your OS and LinITX have a recommended dual core Atom board to go along with the case to provide great performance and low power consumption..

Our guest blogger - The Masked installer - returns again. This time he shares his straight talking opinion from inside the Integrator industry on the ever popular Sonos multi-room music system...

Zigbee based home automation and entertainment system Control4 has just launched its second generation software.  The Flash based system brings a 'multiple new interface design' and the promise of easy customisations by the user.  In addition the update also includes a fashionable 'apps store' called 4Store which allows users to purchase applications to enhance the functionality of their system as well as third party products attached to it.  Check out the video and PR after the jump... 

Naim are famous for their high-end music servers boasting music playback with bit-for-bit accuracy.  Their NaimNet system also offers home automators control of lights, AV, screens and blinds, heating, and security.  All Ethernet connected, using a standard domestic PC network.  It's not surprising then that Naim have joined the ever increasing band of companies identifying the iPad as a their smart home controller....

This one came right out of the blue - Apple have just released a brand new 1.4" high unibody Mac mini - complete with HDMI !  The new machine also includes the NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics, an SD slot and for the firsrt time a built-in PSU.  It and can now take up to 8GB of RAM and - put your pallet knives away - there's now a removable panel on the bottom for easy RAM upgrades.  Read on for all the details...

Ah, the smell of an Apple rumour in the morning.  Engadget is reporting that the famous Cupertino 'hobby' - the Apple TV - is to be reinvented using iPhone OS with full 1080p HD capablities.  The new hardware is purportedly aimed and sucking content off the cloud - we're hoping that includes stuff outside of the iTunes ecosystem - BBC iPayer, (Hulu in the US) etc and local streaming too.  The device is said to have only 16GB of local flash storage rather than a Hard drive, but this is exactly the sort of hardware that most of us crave.  Best of all the reportedly tiny size of the device is matched by a similarly diminutive price - $99!  All sounds to good to be true?  Let us know what you think in the comments... 

In the second of our new "My Automated Home" series, Richard Farthing takes us on a tour of his Green Open Source House.  On a budget of less than £600 the Linux setup looks after property whilst keeping an eye on the carbon footprint too.  Read on for the free software recommendations, the Joggler photos, tips, the what he'd do differently next time and the what's coming next...

We spotted these beauties on our rounds - HiDef distribution whether from your super digital HDMI or old school analogue component HD. You can use CAT5/CAT5E or CAT6 between points and they are available as free-standing units or in these wall plate versions...

This morning Sonos have released v3.2 of their software.  New features included Cross Fading and the ability to use two S5's as a stereo pair.  But for us the joy is that at last, the alarm setup screen finally allows you to pick individual days!  Read on for the full PR...

A few days ago we had a 27 minute power outage during a lightning storm near the Automated Home.  Not an unusual occurrence in itself - but this one was to be more significant.  After a few days of wailing and nashing of teeth here are the lessons learnt and why we now have an in-expensive but effective UPS on our server...

While the Plex dev team works hard on the v9 release, they've just managed to integrate the Apple Video Decode Acceleration Framework Reference into v8.  At last the GPU is being employed to decode those lovely 720P and 1080P H.264 videos (kudos Ryan).  Dev team leader Elan Feingold just posted the news on the Plex blog along with a link to the new binary...

Here's a handy little fella - the PB-PSR Power Sensor Relay from Polar Bear Solutions (the people that brought us the in-wall dock for the Pronto TSU9600).  The 110v / 230v module has a multitude of applications with many installers using it for resetting Sky boxes, as well as managing power saving by controlling the equipment in your AV rack for example...

Last year we took our first look at the 'game changing' HDMI over IP solution from Just Add Power.  Now their second generation product is nearing launch and with it a host of new features, hardware and improved switching.  Read on for the full PR...

The guys over at CyberSelect sent us the low down on this little beauty.  The QED Live uPlay Bluetooth Receiver is a boon for anyone with an iPhone, or other Bluetooth enabled device that wants to stream music wirelessly across to their hifi...

Plex + Indigo + Harmony Remote = Home Automation Bliss      Why do it?  About a year ago, I decided to take the home automation plunge and sought out ways to automate my home's lighting, entertainment and HVAC systems.  After doing a good deal of research, I concluded that the most cost-effective and flexible solution would be to utilitze Perceptive Automationís Indigo software and Smarthome's Insteon modules for the lighting and HVAC. 

Once I installed all the Insteon devices (which also included a garage door opener), I installed the Indigo software on an iMac in my study, connected the iMac to the Insteon adapter which plugs into the wall and my home automation dreams were off and running...

Last night Boxee unveiled its new UI plus details on its hardware box.  They are partnering with D-Link to produce an NVidia ION platform with HDMI, SPDIF, and analogue audio, 2 USBs for expansion and networking using both Wi-Fi (802.11n) and wired ethernet.  The boxee Box will be available in the first half of 2010 wiith no news yet on price...

Based in Northern Ireland, DF Solutions Ltd are a manufacturer of high-end Media Servers for the Custom Install market.  Having recently updated its software front end, DF describe the new 3D UI as "a truly unique product and interface, blowing the competition out of the market", (watch the video after the jump and decide for yourself).  DF Solutions have also just appointed AWE as their exclusive distributor in the UK...

Brilliant Living is one of the UKs premier Integrators and we've featured them before on Automated Home (from the SmartHome Shows of 2007 and 2008).  Run by husband and wife team - Iain and Melanie Shaw - Brilliant Living has just been featured in Business Link Yorkshire and because of that we get a chance to see around the high end headquarters of their custom installation business, complete with AMX touchscreen setup...

Back in September we brought you a review of the ASRock, an Atom powered NetTop PC running 1080P out to HDMI using XBMC.  Now the LinITX guys are at it again, this time with an even smaller, silent fan-less design that does the same job, but at £210 costs even less...

Here's a set of three videos from Custom Controls showing recent integration projects for smart home lighting and security systems as well as the Spotify streaming music service.  Watch the other two videos after the jump...

Using a Crestron touchpanel to select mood lighting scenes as part of a Crestron Greenlight system. Also shows how easy it is to create custom mood lighting scenes and instantly recall at the touch of a button.

Here's another reason to love all that CAT5 you sunk into your walls.  The £90 set of CAT5Blaster Wallplates from Keene Electronics allow you to send two independent video channels (either 1 x S-Video or 2 x Composite) plus audio over CAT5 cable for up to 100 metres...

Aimed squarely at the audiophile, the new Folio music server from UK based Pinnacle Audio uses FLAC Lossless compression.  Their built-in CD ripping engine also features RAID technology to make sure your music is automatically copied to two hard drives - sparing you the pain of ever having to re-rip your collection.  The Sonos like control comes via the Nokia touchsreen tablet and some custom software.  Watch the video after the jump...

Automated Home reader Kevin Warner has been building a comprehensive home automation system based on a HomeSeer backend controlled from touch screens using Cinemars MainLobby system.  Check out the photos of his beautiful installation along with his opinions on what works best and his thoughts on future additions...

Elgato have just released their iPhone app (£2.99) for the EyeTV Mac tuner range.  If like us you watch and record TV with something like the superb EyeTV 250 Plus then you can now stream live TV or recordings to your iPhone, schedule recordings when you are away from home and browse the EPG...

A few days ago we were contacted by the guys at LinITX.com Apparently they had a little box we'd be interested in.  Turns out the ASRock 330 is another nettop PC, but one with a nice GPU.  What makes this especially interesting to us is that the XBMC team have recently added GPU support to the Linux version of their world beating media player software.  So can this little £250 machine replace our weapon of choice, the Mac mini which costs double the price?  Read on to find out...

Back in 2007 we heard a rumour that Sky were working on developing a new server that would record all the families shows and distribute them around the home to a client box in each room.  Today the rumour is back, changed slightly, and this time with more details...

We've just seen this first image of the new Sonos controller.  The CR200 uses a touch screen and comes complete with a charging cradle.  There's no word on pricing but it should be available pretty much immediately.

We're also told that Sonos will be releasing a new bundle. The BU150 now changes to the BU250 which includes the CR200. There also is a slight colour change with the zoneplayers hardware to match the new controller but there are no technical changes & will still be named the ZP120 & ZP90.
 

After our piece on virtual home servers, here's another alternative to saving power, money and the planet whilst still serving your media around the house.  The Tranquil BBS2 Barebones Home Media Server is a low power, 5 SATA bay, barebones box. Just choose your OS and apply...

UK Home Automator turned podcaster, Don McAllister, is famous for his high quality video tutorials for the Mac.  This week he comes back to his roots covering a true smart home application and an Automated Home favourite - Plex.  Like us, Don is "blown away" by the OpenSource media player / library manager and the show is a great resource for anyone setting up Plex for the first time as well as showing some of the more advanced features if you are already a Plex user.  Links to the 46 minute long Free HD video after the jump...

Jon Bentley from Channel 5's Gadget Show has taken the Philips Streamium MCI500H for a test drive.   The system can hold around 8,000 tracks on its own built in 160GB hard drive as well as streaming from other media sources around your home like PCs. 

it features both wired Ethernet and WiFi, FM and Internet Radio and a top mounted USB socket for playing from a thumb drive.  The £500 system supports DRM free MP3 files, AAC and WMAs (of the non-lossless variety). Check out the video afer the jump...

The world of HiDef is fab but as someone who has just had the builders in to open the ceiling to run an HDMI cable up to our projector, it can be frustrating too.  If you're in a similar position and want a more convenient solution then Marmitek may have the answer with their new GigaVideo800.  It sends an uncompressed HD signal wirelessly from up to four connected HD devices to your HDTV or projector...