home entertainment

Copyright Board of Canada Plans to Tax Legal Music Downloads

Oh, Canada. You already tax MP3 players and blank CDs. Now you want to tax downloads themselves? The Copyright Board of Canada has given the thumbs-up to a tax of at least 2.1 cents for individual tracks and 1.5 cents per track for whole album purchases from online stores. Even subscription services will have taxes…

Orbit Design Keeps Your Remote Handy

Losing your remote is a daily occurrence, but with this orbit remote from Chloe Fung, you’ll have to lose your arm to misplace this. The remote, worn as a bracelet, has the buttons placed around the edge so you can rotate it to find what you want to do. Interesting design, yes, but ultimately pretty…

Marantz VP-15S1 Projector Brings on the High-End 1080p

Marantz rolled out another one of its higher-end 1080p DLP projectors for home theater today, wrapping up this VP-15S1 in the same package as last year’s model but significantly enhancing the specs. The contrast ratio is punched up, from 6500:1 in the old model to 10,000:1 on this one, and it’s significantly brighter, up to…

Man Builds $30,000 Jumbo Jet Simulator in his Bedroom

Click to viewJohn Davis spent eight years and 15,000 building a Boeing 747 flight simulator in a room in his house. And now the 47-year-old’s hobby has turned into such a full-time occupation that he has jacked in his job as a graphic designer to run a full-time flight simulation business from his home in…

Sharp Unveils Awesome TV Stand Sound System Combo

Sharp’s new ANPR1000H home theater system does a lot more than just hold up your TV. This bad boy can pony up 300W of power and 2.1 channel surround sound, plus it has “Audistry” sound reproduction technology by Dolby, DTS, and Dolby Digital and Dolby Pro Logic II Decoder. It’s stylish, compact, and a great…

D-Box GP-200 Racing Game Seat Costs a Fortune

Although it’s not the ultimate racing setup, this D-Box GP-200 definitely has the sitting and steering part of the equation solved. The bucket seat has three hydraulic jacks, five speakers, and is attached to a steering column that looks more solid than most cars built in the ’70s. However, the set only works with a…

Classic Mac Becomes Sweet Jukebox

One industrious modder decided that the bet use for his newly acquired Mac Classic was to make it into this personal jukebox. After ripping out the CRT monitor, he was able to squeeze in a new LCD display, 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo Mac Mini, extra 750GB drive and power supply. The only external modifications included…

A Sam’s Club in Murfreesboro, TN is selling Apple TVs at clearance for $153.01—it’s unknown if other locations are also selling it at that price, so YMMV. [TUAW]

New Jacuzzi J400 Hot Tub is All About the iPod

I dream of a day that I can dock my iPod with anything, (although I think that the release of the iCarta toilet paper holder a couple of years ago pretty much made that dream a reality) and now Jacuzzi is doing their part with the J400 series line of iPod-compatible hot tubs. Thanks to…

An analyst at Cowen & Company is pegging the chances of the XM/Sirius merger netting government approval at “70 percent plus,” with a saucy number cruncher at Citigroup putting the odds at 69 percent. Regardless, it’s a sexier picture for pro-merger folks than it was several months ago. [Orbitcast]

VinylDisc: Hey You Got Vinyl on My CD

The concept behind VinylDisc is valid, that there are people out there who want to hear their music in pristine digital sound, yet are still drawn to the eclectic analog nature of vinyl, yet want it all on one disc. And they’ve even found a band who wants to try it out. British rockers Fightstar…

XtremeMac Tango Studio, a Dock for the Latest iPods

Xtreme Mac must’ve thought its old Tango iPod dock was getting a little long in the tooth and also bit too expensive, so now there’s Tango Studio, a more-compact room audio system and FM radio that works with just about any iPod, even the new ones. It has a retractable iPod dock that’s ambidextrous, able…

Build Your Own Rubik’s Cube Subwoofer in 164 Easy Steps

Well, maybe not “easy” steps—after all, it took designer Zachary Paisley 80 days, some serious manual labor, $1586 in total build costs, and a whole lot of math to put together the world’s first Rubik’s Cube-shaped 15-inch Direct-Servo Subwoofer. I think you will agree that the results were worth the effort. Naturally, when something this…

Movie Gallery, the number two video rental chain, has been browbeaten into bankruptcy by the vast array of forces assaulting B&M rental outlets—the bloodbath between Netflix and Blockbuster, web video, VOD and so on. Quick and dirty takeaway: The picture’s not looking pretty for your corner video store. [Crave]

Onkyo Home Theater in a Box Has HDMI 1.3a, 10-inch Sub, 1080p DVD Player

Although this Home Theater in a Box (HTiB) doesn’t have as many features as Onkyo’s DTX-8.8, it still gives you an all-in-one solution for your entertainment needs in a relatively affordable package—and it’s Onkyo’s top of the line HTiB. The receiver in the HT-SP908 and HT-SP904 models has 7.1-channel audio, two HDMI 1.3a ports, 1080p…

YouTube Antipiracy Video Identification System Enters Beta Testing

The not-so hotly anticipated GooTube antipiracy system has jumped into beta. Creatively dubbed Video Identification, it’s a digital fingerprint setup where uploaded clips are matched against a stock of legit clips provided by their owners—YouTube will then follow whatever course the copyright holder wants, be it leave it or pull it. We’ll have a better…

The four-year extension of the net access tax ban has passed the House, 405-2. But it leaves the door open for taxes on “voice, audio or video programming” delivered through the intertubes, so VoIP and IPTV might be future tax revenue boosters. [CNet] https://gizmodo.com/house-judiciary-votes-to-extend-ban-on-net-access-tax-b-309967

Lumenlab Q42, the Hybrid HDTV and PC

Lumenlab thinks it’s come up with the solution for that computer/TV set conundrum playing itself out on home theaters across the globe with the Q42, a 42-inch 1080p flat panel with a PC hidden inside. At just 3 inches deep, the all-in-one unit’s PC has a terabyte of hard disk storage, 2GB of RAM and…

New HD LCD from Samsung has LED Backlight and 52 Inches

Samsung’s new 52-inch LCD, the LN-52F91BD, has got an LED backlight to give you a brighter picture, along with USB port, 3 HDMI 1.3 port and Infolink function for your stock and news updates from MSN. Sadly it’s only available in Korea, and even more sadly, if you want one, you’re going to have to…

The Supper Surround Stereo: When a Mug isn’t a Mug

This concept stereo designed by Taguchi Craft, is made to blend in with your kitchen. There’s currently no word on pricing, but they’re scheduled to pop up around winter 2008. Might be better in a shelf in the kitchen than on the table. I’d keep trying to drink from the midbase driver or something. [Design…