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Share Your Pathetic TV Viewing Experience

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

Do you have a VCR connected to an old TV with rabbit ear antenna?

Do your friends run away every time you invite them over for “Movie Night?”

Have you never experience the true joy of College Football on HDTV with Surround Sound?

If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, then quickly grab a camera and snap a picture of the out-of-date mess that you call an “Entertainment Center” in your living room. Then submit the photo and enter to win the Dell HDTV “Makeover Your Living Room” Photo Challenge.

Nobody should suffer the tragedy of an embarrassing “Entertainment Center” in this technological day and age. So simply upload a photo of your pathetic television viewing experience. If it’s voted the best of the worst, you’ll win an incredible Home Theater makeover that includes:

· Sony Bravia 46″ LCD HDTV

· Blu-Ray Disc Player and Theater Micro System

· Sony PlayStation 3 Gaming Console, and so much more!

Plus, you’ll get a chance to instantly win a new Sony, Samsung, Sharp or Philips HDTV, plus accessories when you play our online game.

So don’t delay, your chance to win could be just a photo away. =)

Posted in HDTV, Home Theater | 6 Comments »

Time to Upgrade Your Analog TV Set?

Monday, January 19th, 2009

On Feb. 17, the Digital TV Transition will be complete and all broadcast television stations in the United States will switch from analog to digital broadcasting. While owners of most TVs purchased after 2005, of 25-inch or larger, need not purchase any hardware for the change, any analog TV will require a digital-to analog converter to view broadcasts. For more information on government rebate coupons to assist with the purchase of a set-top converter, go to TV Converter Box Coupon Program.

If you do have an analog TV and you are considering upgrading to HDTV, Dell and Sharp have teamed up to provide an HDTV Learning Center to help with your purchase.

From HDTVs to Blu-ray players, learn about the latest Sharp products available from Dell, which can help turn your living room into the home entertainment center of your dreams.

For additional resources to assist with your HDTV purchase, be sure to check out the Dell Home Theater Learning Center.

Posted in HDTV, Home Theater, Tips | No Comments »

Dell HDTV Online Learning Event

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

Have you ever wondered what size HDTV to purchase for your home? Or which was the best way to connect your home computer or gaming console to your HDTV? Well here is your chance to learn this and much more about HDTV technology.

Dell will host an online HDTV webinar at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 11. What’s a webinar? A webinar, or “Web seminar,” is an online event designed to facilitate communication between a small number of presenters and a large remote audience using the Internet. Sort of like a class on a particular subject, which you can take online.

Attendance will be limited for this event, so please register as soon as possible to ensure your spot will be reserved.

For the FAQ and more information on the event, refer to the following link:

HDTV Online Learning Event

Date: Nov. 11, 2008
Time: 8 p.m. EST
Topics: HDTV

1. What everyone needs to know about the Analog to Digital Television conversion on Feb. 17, 2009
2. A Dell TV specialist will explain the latest features in TV technology
3. How you can get the most out of your TV

Duration: 30 minutes
Register: Register Here

Posted in Events, HDTV | No Comments »

From PC to Boob Tube – Play Video Off The Internet On Your TV

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Previously, I mentioned how life with losing a cable TV channel could be rough. I’ve also mentioned how you can use Microsoft Media Center to record television shows on your PC. The key question is how do you stream media on your PC to your living room PC? This is a problem that many companies have had a hand in trying to resolve. Namely Amazon, Intel, Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc. Well settle in for the answer, because there are a lot of options.

Generally, there are two approaches to stream music/video/television from your PC to your TV.

1. A dedicated non- PC hardware device i.e. Roko with the popular Netflix service, Tivo with Amazon Video On Demand (formerly Amazon Unbox) and the Apple TV. Typically, they work on a subscription-based model, you buy the shows/plan you want, hook the device to your TV and away you go. It may cost more, but you have convenience. Note: The popular Slingbox device isn’t quite in this category. It relies on a TV source you supply, and allows you to view it anywhere with an Internet connection.

2. PC Software – There is ample software to do this task i.e. TVeristy, Zune, Windows Media Player, XBMC, Orb, Google Media Server, Connect360, and those are just the primary Windows programs. Many exist for the Mac and Linux. After the install, you could simply hook a PC to your TV. However, the heat, noise and size of the PC might not work with your decor. You could build a PC better suited, or looks for a sleek compact model i.e. the Dell Hybrid. You really don’t need a high-end PC for such a task.

Fortunately, many non-PC devices can hook to your TV and stream those video files on your PC using the software above. One standard is the Digital Living Room Network Alliance, which is trying to make this ecosystem all work together. In this situation, the PC handles downloading the show, then transcodes it to a proper video format for your device attached to your PC. The most popular devices to do this are the XBOX 360 and PS3. They are a great buy considering their primary purpose is to play video games. Having both, I prefer the XBOX 360 because it supports direct downloads of TV shows from XBOX Live as well (no PC required). Soon, you’ll be able to stream TV shows and movies directly to your XBOX from Netflix library directly, without a third-party PC install. This includes movies in HD as well.

Of the software I mentioned, I’ve tried most. Each has pluses and minuses. Not a day goes by that I don’t use Media Center for streaming TV I’ve recorded on my computer from cable. For TV shows I can’t record, I recently tried PlayOn by MediaMall. Play On allows you to stream browser based TV to various devices.

It is in beta, and the first few iterations didn’t install on my PC. The PC requirements are minimal, and you simply need Windows Media Player 11 as a prerequisite. Both my PS3 and 360 connected effortlessly. TV shows did stream well, and the picture quality was great considering we are talking about Flash video. However, the real deal breaker is that Hulu didn’t stream for more than a few seconds. A $30 price tag is a bit steep, but if it worked well it might be worth the price.

Thoughts? What works best for you? Has anyone actually cut the cord and dropped TV service to stream their shows exclusively over the Internet or over-the-air?

Posted in HDTV, Tips, Video | 3 Comments »

Cyber Sisterhood Reads from ‘Round the Web

Friday, October 3rd, 2008

Here are some things I read this week that you might like.

You’ve seen the commercials, now you can Ask a Geek Girl: What Does the Digital TV Deadline Mean?

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is likely to get some great attention with Estee Lauder Companies’ Social Media Campaign.

Halloween Costumes on the Web by Regina Lewis gives you a great shopping guide, and buying tips for online.

Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

Posted in Cyber Sisterhood, HDTV, Social Media, Tips | No Comments »

Microsoft & Netflix Agreement Coming

Monday, July 14th, 2008

A while back, I had mentioned how excited I was about how the vmcNetflix add-in brought Netflix’s Watch Instantly feature to my Xbox 360. Now, Microsoft is making it official over at E3. Several folks like Todd Bishop, Dean Takahashi and John Biggs have confirmed an agreement between the two companies coming later this Fall.

Beyond that, looks like Live Groups will make it even more compelling. Good stuff… a few things on my wishlist: better video quality, faster performance from the Xbox 360 interface, and a bigger portion of the Netflix library to choose from.

This new development could present a solid challenge to the Apple TV. Come on Netflix and Microsoft… I bet you can do it.

Posted in Connectivity, HDTV, Home Theater, Video | 3 Comments »

The Vista Media Center PC – This Isn’t Your Father’s DVR

Friday, June 20th, 2008

I, like everyone else, want what I want. I sit in an office, stare at a computer all day and type my fingers to the bone. When I get home, like you, I want my TV and I want it on my terms. Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know how great a digital video recorder (DVR) is. They give you the freedom to watch a show while recording another, they provide an onscreen TV guide and best of all allow you to skip commercials. Now, what if I told you, you may already have the best DVR available in your home right now, and it doesn’t require any fees. A Vista Media Center PC is just that, and is hands down the best TV viewing experience I have ever encountered.

Microsoft hasn’t exactly just introduced this. For years they have built this capability into Windows to organize your music, photos and videos. The Media Center program was written specifically to view these items on your TV. This is commonly called the “10 Foot Interface.” With all due respect to your grandmother’s scrapbooking efforts, nothing compares to seeing your home photos and movies elegantly organized and in high definition with your own custom audio. All of this available, with the press of a button on your remote control.

The Vista Media Center program seamlessly records the TV shows you choose from the onscreen guide. You can opt to record more than one show at the same time, simply by installing an additional TV tuner. Many tuners don’t require the PC to be opened, and can even record free, over the air (OTA) high definition shows as well. Like a traditional DVR, you can watch one show while recording another. If you don’t want a PC in the living room, a Microsoft XBOX 360 will work just as well. The XBOX connects to your TV, which in turns connects to your PC in another room (wired or wirelessly).

The free onscreen guide is built into Media Center

With my beefy hard drive I can record as little or much as I like. My measly (by today’s standards) 200 Gig hard drive has over 40 hours of HDTV. Odds are, I’ll delete much of it, but the shows look great. Browsing and selecting a TV show could not be easier. A large visual thumbnail of each show scrolls across the TV with a description and the time it was recorded. Even my three year old can successfully navigate the simplistic menu to drill into the very exact “Thomas and His Friends” that he absolutely has to watch.

Selecting a recorded TV show is simple and elegant

In another post, I’ll describe how you can edit the TV show you recorded, and splice it into a home movie. Also, I’ll go into how you can rip your DVD collection and integrate it into the experience.

The fact of the matter is, I have a three year old. So I don’t have lazy Sunday evenings to sit and watch reruns of “American Dad.” However, at least it is still pretty darn easy to watch TV on my own terms.

Posted in Desktops, Film, Gaming, HDTV, Home Theater, Laptops, Operating Systems | 4 Comments »

New Options for Home Theater

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

When people start building their home theater experience, bigger is usually better but of course, bigger is usually a lot more expensive. Getting a monitor larger than 32” to 37” diagonally runs the price well over $1,000. But there are alternatives to the bigger monitor that are well worth considering when putting together your home theater experience.

Digital projectors are getting smaller and more affordable and this week, Dell is releasing the M409WX. Priced from $999, it has a small footprint while offering true widescreen perspective with a high enough resolution to support high-definition images.

So what are the pros and cons of using a projector as the center of your home theater system?

The first big advantage to using a projector is obviously size. In most houses, a projector the size of the M409WX is plenty powerful to project as large an image as space allows. I watched this year’s Final Four with my prototype at about eight-feet wide in the living room connected to my high-definition cable box and the results were spectacular!

Another advantage is the flexibility to project any video mode. While the M409WX’s specs show a maximum resolution of 1280 x 800, that’s when connected to a computer. Connected to other video sources, it goes to 1600 x 1200 which easily accommodates 1080p high definition video. The projector has HDMI inputs as well as VGA, S-Video and composite.

Finally, the atmosphere you create is another reason why projectors work for home theater. A darkened room with projected images from behind actually helps re-create the ambience of a movie theater. For those who have designed viewing rooms to enhance this atmosphere, a projector really fits the whole scheme.

On the negative side, the biggest concern is naturally the life expectancy of the projector lamp. The M409WX is expected to last 3,000 hours but you can extend this to 5,000 hours by running the projector in Eco mode. Eco mode trades brightness for extended bulb life and lower energy use — and in most households, is still bright enough to enjoy your favorite DVDs or sports programs.

Some projector types can create problems with color accuracy and contrast. Dell projectors use DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology that tends to have some of the best color accuracy in video, but sometimes there can still be barely discernible differences between projected video and a monitor display.

Space can also be a consideration since cabling to the projector and the heat it generates definitely affect your home theater layout. But there are a number of creative solutions for those issues, depending on your room. The M409WX can be configured for front or rear projection and also for inverted mounting on a ceiling. So most of the architectural problems can be overcome with a little ingenuity.

There is a fairly thorough article on using projectors for home theater at About.com and it is obvious from the way projectors are being marketed on home theater enthusiast Web sites that they aren’t just for the corporate conference room any more.

Posted in HDTV, Home Theater | 4 Comments »

Hi-Def Staycation Enjoyment for the Summer

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

While Word Spy cites a story by Terry Massey in the July 11, 2003 Myrtle Beach Sun-News as the term’s origin, for me the “staycation” phenomenon — spending time enjoying the joys of home instead of costly travel – was born Memorial Day Weekend 2008.

With the end of the rapid ascent of fuel prices nowhere in sight, investing in home entertainment might be a great alternative to burning through tankfuls of liquid gold. If you’re in the market for a scorching deal for those scorching staycation nights, you might be interested in $700 off a 46-inch High Definition Flat Panel LCD TV – the Sony® BRAVIA® W-Series KDL-46W3000.

Imagine you’re reading a brochure for a tropical resort: Immerse yourself in brilliant color and amaze yourself with the depth and clarity from the wide 46-inch screen. With a contrast ratio of 1800:1, images come alive with life-like color and sound. Featuring HDMI™ (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) and PC connectivity, you can seamlessly hook up compatible PCs and components to the large display. With a light sensor to monitor ambient light in the room, the TV automatically adjusts screen brightness making for comfortable viewing sans strain.

Offer good until 7 a.m. Central tomorrow. Pina coladas not included.

Posted in HDTV | 2 Comments »

Your Check is in the Mail…

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

With the early release of the much-anticipated federal “Economic Stimulus” payments, the scramble to tap into that retail bonanza has begun. So we get double goodness: a not inconsiderable windfall and aggressive deals on consumer electronics.

Judging from a new study by Consumer Electronics Association, big screen HDTVs are likely to be hot items when those IRS checks get cashed.

“More than 50 percent of American homes already own a digital television and it looks like high definition, or HDTV, has the potential to match that household penetration by the end of the year,” said Chris Ely, CEA’s senior analyst. “With the transition to digital television on February 17, 2009, lower HDTV prices and an increased awareness of the benefits of high definition, many consumers are deciding to upgrade their televisions.”

How many chances do we get to turn around the economy AND throw a kickass NBA finals watching party?

Posted in HDTV | 1 Comment »

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