home entertainment

Joost Beta 1.0 Debuts, Everybody Can Try It Now

Until late last week, if you wanted to use the potentially cable-TV-replacing video streaming service Joost, you had to have friends. But now anybody can watch Joost online from dusk until the dawn and beyond, because Beta 1.0 of the P2P (peer-to-peer) video service just hit the streets. The good news? The company’s just about…

Home Theater Mag Calls Pioneer Elite Kuro 110-FD Plasma “Greatest Flat Panel Ever”

Home Theater Magazine‘s Geoff Morrison is calling the Pioneer Elite Kuro 110-FD plasma TV the “greatest flat panel ever.” Here are the highlights: • Black level is “lower than any other flat panel we’ve ever measured.” • “Full-on/full-off contrast ratio…is nearly double that of the next best flat panel.” • Watching Pirates of the Caribbean,…

Booze Drip Saves Time, Sanity

The Booze Drip appears to take all of the fun out of drinking, deconstructing the past time to the cold, hard science of blood alcohol levels. And we know what you’re thinking: “Thanks?” But the Booze Drip does not actually circumvent your mouth with a direct vein feed for your alcohol, as one might assume…

Prototype Toshiba Gigabeat Sports Dazzling Display

We had all but given up on exciting new PMPs before seeing this new Toshiba Gigabeat prototype. And while Akihabara News has technically labeled it a DAP (audio only), we’re expecting that its gorgeous OLED 3.2″ WQVGA screen will find a use for our movies and TV shows as well. Sure, the display isn’t as…

3.8-Kilowatt JL Audio Gotham G213 Subwoofer is The Mother of All Subs

The long-awaited Gotham Home Theater Subwoofer G213 from JL Audio is finally shipping, and judging from its formidable spec sheet, it might be worth the wait if you feel like simulating an earthquake that can be felt within a radius of a half-mile. Billed as “The Mother of All Subs,” to call this a powered…

Nintendo Not Going to Have Enough Wiis This Holiday Season

Nintendo knows that the best way to keep a product hyped up is to make sure said product is difficult to get. If there’s a shortage, that must mean that lots of people want them, and you’d better buy yours before someone else beats you to it! Right? While Nintendo has had plenty of time…

Ultra High-End Sim2 Grand Cinema C3X 1080 Projector to Ship in November

Sim2, maker of high-end fancy pants projectors, will be one of the first manufacturers to release a model using the new DLP DarkChip 4 from Texas Instruments. And get this—three of those chips will be shining inside Sim2’s Grand Cinema C3X 1080 projector, set to ship in November. Besides bringing you what the company calls…

Sony’s 3mm Thick XEL-1 OLED TV Finally Revealed, Japanese Launch this December

So this is what Sony’s special secret product is: its OLED TVs. We previewed them back at the beginning of the year and now we’ve got the details. 1,000,000:1 contrast, out in Japan on December 1, and $1,743 for an 11-inch model. Sheesh. Specs up next. https://gizmodo.com/sony-demos-9mm-thick-high-def-oled-displays-251613 Weighs 2 kgs Measures 287 140 253mm Contrast ratio…

Unconfirmed: Xbox 360 Core Discontinued at GameStop

Kotaku reports that they’ve gotten tips from their GameStop employee readers that an email got sent out telling store managers to take down any signs relating to the Xbox 360 Core version (that’s the gimped, hard-drive-less model). There haven’t been any reports yet of the same thing going on in other retailers, but unless this…

AMP Speaker Is So Big it Doubles as a Desk

There are plenty of stupidly big speakers out there, but how many of them make good use of their hulking sizes? Not many. That’s why this AMP speaker is so awesome: it’s not only a speaker, but it’s also a desk. It’s an active speaker, meaning it has an amplifier built into it. Because of…

Oppo HM-31 Turns Three HDMI Signals Into One Without Clipping or Gypping

There’s something about those initials HDMI that send some manufacturers into fits of greed, but not Oppo. The company that makes up-rezzing DVD players, two of which we’ve favorably reviewed, now announces an HDMI switch that turns three 1080p sources into one, electronically switching them with a remote control and sending those crispy clean signals…

Slingbox Solo Hands On: Slinging a Single HD Source Wherever You Are

Click to viewSling Media rolled out Slingbox Solo, a set-top box that lets you watch a home-bound HD source from anywhere in the world on a PC, Mac, Palm OS or Symbian mobile device. It’s called “Solo” because it controls just one set-top box, instead of the four of its more-expensive Slingbox Pro brandmate. The…

LaCie Silverscreen Media Center Plays Back DivX In 1080i

LaCie’s revived their old Silverscreen brand to bring you a 1080i, 500GB capacity media player that handles DivX files. It plus directly into your TV via component, and can even support 5.1 Dolby Digital via its optical out. MP3 audio files and JPG picture viewing is also included, but unfortunately the Silverscreen still doesn’t include…

Photoshop Contest Time! Insert Bill Gates Throughout History.

We all know that the Halo 3 launch yesterday was THE BIGGEST EVENT IN HISTORY, according to Microsoft. Above, you can see a photo of Billy Gates during the launch, looking like he just rolled out of bed. Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is this: put Bill in other historic situations. I…

Olive Opus No. 5 HDD Jukebox Is Profit Margin Machine

Youth may be squandered by the young, but it’s the older folks that foolishly spend on equipment that should cost much less. Take for instance Olive’s Opus No. 5 hard-drive audio server, referred to in marketing material as “The world’s first digital audio system bringing together the sweet sound of vinyl and the accuracy and…

Transparent Opus Speaker Cables Bring You Audio Nirvana for $43,000 a Pair

We learned a lot from the feedback we got from the story about those “danceable” $7,250 cables from Pear Cable. Besides a complete reinforcement of that concept of a sucker being born every minute, we also found out the Pear Anjou cable’s $7,250 price is a downright bargain compared with the prices of these Transparent…

Samsung’s still the world leader in TV sets. iSuppli reports they’re doing 12.4% of the market, globally, in the April to June quarter. LG and Philips are next wtih 11.4 and 7.1%. For some perspective: Cathode ray TVs are projected to still have 38% of shipments in 2009. Crazy, I know. [Yahoo!]

Microsoft Offering Disc Replacements For Scratched Halo 3 Limited Edition

If your Halo 3 Limited Edition discs are scratched—like ours were—you can get a replacement disc by filling out a form and sending your disc back to Microsoft. Of course, this will take up to two weeks for delivery—not counting the time it takes for your disc to get to Microsoft—which may be too long…

Sling Media to be Acquired by EchoStar for $380 Million

Sling Media, the company that brought you the Slingbox and SlingPlayer software, has been bought by EchoStar. The corporation, which owns the DISH pay-TV network, has valued Sling Media at $380 million, and the sale should take place before the end of the year. Full press release is below. EchoStar Announces Agreement to Acquire Sling…

Halo 3 Swag Rebagging (Plus Apology)

Click to viewThe other day, I posted a video showing some cool Halo 3 swag Microsoft sent me as part of the press kit. Despite me putting the word “Incredible” in the headline, people thought my video reflected a lack of appreciation for the gear, and I was called many names for it, and even…