Latest Gear Live Videos
TiVo HD out of stock. TiVo Premiere imminent?
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Rumors,
Looks like TiVo has run out of TiVo HD units, if their online store is any indication, which has us wondering if the newer TiVo Premiere is about to make it’s debut. We originally mentioned the TiVo Premiere when a customer accidentally received a manual for the device packed in with a TiVo HD purchase. You’d think that if TiVo was already printing instructions on how to use the device, it had to be near-ready to ship, and this was just over a month ago.
In the meantime, if you want a TiVo, go for the TiVo XL instead.
Read More 
| TiVo Store
Advertisement
Sonos S5 unboxing gallery
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Home Entertainment,
After reporting on the existence of the Sonos S5, we were immediately excited to get our hands on a unit to see how it stacked up against the rest of the lineup. If you’ve followed us for any length of time, you know that we at Gear Live are huge Sonos fans, so it makes sense that our unit arrived as soon as they were available, and we had it set up within minutes. Literally.
The S5 is the easiest way to get up and running with Sonos. We had it unboxed, plugged in, and playing music in under five minutes, controlling it with an iPhone. The price is right too, something we’ve previously criticized Sonos about. The entry level into Sonos used to be $999, but with the S5 that drops down to $399. Put this one on your Christmas list, folks. We’ve snapped a bunch of images of the S5, which you can find in our Sonos S5 unboxing gallery.
Read More | Sonos S5 gallery
Gallery:
2009 Holiday Gift Guide: Roku HD-XR Player
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Internet, Women, Techies, Under $100, Under $250,
We are kicking off our 2009 Holiday Gift Guide with the Roku HD-XR player. Why? Well, we think that it’s the perfect time to introduce someone to the new hotness that is TV, delivered over the web, and right into the living room. Sure, Netflix has come to the Xbox 360, but if you want streaming access to the Netflix service and don’t own a game console, this is your cheapest barrier to entry. The HD-XR model also gives you access to the Amazon Unbox catalogue, as well as the entire MLB game service as well, if you are subscribed.
Definitely a great gift for movie buffs, the Roku HD-XR player is able to stream over 12,000 movies and television shows from the Netflix Watch Instantly catalogue, and over 45,000 from Amazon Video on Demand. It connects to your home network through an ethernet port, or over Wi-Fi, connecting at up to 802.11n if you have it. There’s also a USB port on back, which Roku says is for future use. Our guess is that they’ll be allowing the device to read from an external USB drive, which would be stellar.
The actual device is tiny, so it takes up barely any space, and setup takes just a couple of minutes - very simple. Of course, a Netflix subscription is required, but once you have that, everything else is a piece of cake.
Honorable Mention: If you want all the features of the Roku HD-XR, but don’t need the USB port or 802.11n wireless speeds, you can grab the Roku HD Player for $99!
Read More | Roku HD-XR
Bleeding Edge TV 319: Apple TV 3.0 walkthrough
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, Apple, Features, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Movies, Music, Podcasts, Software, Videocasts, Videos,
Yesterday, Apple released Apple TV 3.0, the first “major” release for the device in about two years. The company has often referred to the Apple TV as a hobby, as opposed to a real business. That said, there are a few nice additions that can be found in the Apple TV 3.0 update, so we give you a full walkthrough of the device, giving you a sampling of some of the new hotness.
Some of the standout features are the obviously redesigned home screen. Instead of the centered grid, you get a full screen menu that makes it easier to navigate right to the content that you want. I mean, it’s nice, but it seems to be the biggest visual upgrade to the device, which we think is in need of a hardware refresh. You also score Genius DJ playlist abilities, nice for parties and such, but I rock a Sonos system, so it doesn’t really appeal to me personally. Same goes for Internet radio, but it is there as a feature, and it’s nice. The one we like is the addition of iTunes Extras and iTunes LP content. We are fans of the iTunes LP, so being able to see it on an HDTV, which is where we think it shines, is also “nice.”
If you are picking up on a trend, you win. This whole 3.0 business is, in a word, “nice.” It isn’t anything more than that. It brings the Apple TV in line with other Apple products, allowing it to do things that other devices can do, and it gets a UI refresh, and the Helvetica font. All well and good, but let’s hope that next time around we get some decent new hardware. In any event, hit the play button for the full tour.
Newegg Deal: Samsung 58” 1080p plasma HDTV
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Hot Deals,
Newegg is selling the 58” Samsung PN58A650 Touch of Color plasma HDTV at a very decent price. The Samsung PN58A650 hooks you up with a full 1080p display, and four HDMI inputs. You can pick up the the HDTV set for just $1799.99, which is $1,200 less than the original price, and even about $600 less than the best price on Amazon. Take a look at the Samsung PN58A650 HDTV on Newegg to get the savings.
As always, you can find all sorts of Newegg promo codes and deals on our forums.
Read More | Samsung 58" PN58A650 HDTV
James Cameron’s Avatar: New ways for the current 3D fad to bloom?
Posted by Mark Rollins Categories: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Movies,
In case you were asleep on the Internet last week, James Cameron’s long awaited film Avatar just launched its first teaser trailer. All I can say is “it’s about time,” because I’ve been hearing about Avatar for years. Word is that James Cameron, who hasn’t given us a decent blockbuster since that one with the big sinking ocean liner, had to reinvent cinema technology to give us this 3D science-fiction epic.
It would appear that Panasonic is getting behind Cameron by helping to promote it by bringing their huge 103-inch screens to locations everywhere to show people the 3D effects. I got a chance to see Panasonic’s 3D television at CES, and it was quite something.
All I can say is that Avatar had better be worth this kind of promotion. If it is the Titanic hit that people believe it will be, than I have no doubt that 3D will soon become the new standard of big blockbuster movies.
In the meantime, check out the teaser trailer below:
Sharp’s 13 new LCD TVs with built-in Blu-ray Recorders
Posted by Mark Rollins Categories: HDTV, Home Entertainment,
I can’t help but wonder if Sharp has set a record for the most TVs announced in one day as they are putting out 13 LCD TVs with built-in Blu-ray recorders. These AQUOS DX2 series sets come in the sizes that you see here, with the 40, 46, and 52-inchers hitting you with a contrast ratio of 15,000:1 at 1080p, while all the other smaller models come in at a 7000:1 contrast ratio. The prices will vary as the 26-inch model costs $1,700, while the 52-inch models retail at $4,800. So far, this line of Blu-ray recording Sharp AQUOS TVs are slated for a Japan-only release.
Read More | Sharp Press Release
Tivoli introduces new iPAL - now available in yellow
Posted by Finnian Durkan Categories: Design, Home Entertainment, Music,
I love listening to my iPod. Everywhere I go, I have it plugged in - on the road, in my car, on the bus, at work; everywhere. But no matter how much I love having all of my audio/visual media right at my fingertips, there has always been one thing that has bothered me about iPods and all of their associated paraphernalia - they all look the same.
They all resemble something that Eero Saarinen carved out of a block of plastic, polished to a shine, and made available to the public. This is all well and good if you have a condo chock-full of Jetsons furniture, eschewing any and all hard lines in favor of the Apple standard of soft eggshell curved products. I, on the other hand, am a pretty typical guy and have a living space peppered with very angular, semi-broken furniture and accoutrements that make a proto-futuristic iPod docking station look a tad out of place.
Enter Tivoli’s iPAL docking station. Resembling something that would be right at home on a WWII submarine or knocking around in the jungle on a National Geographic expedition; it is the perfect addition to my jumbled, yet spartan living situation. Stacked next to my hotplate and the Zenith TV that I use as the base for my coffee table, it looks perfectly natural - like it was meant to be there. Despite its rugged and retro appearance, it offers amazing sound quality, and also comes with an AM/FM auto-tuner and a NiMH battery pack that recharges in three hours and offers 16 hours of continuous play.
While its price, at $274.04 (192.40 Euro) makes it far more expensive than any of the rest of my furniture, it still looks mighty fine sitting atop my bookshelf made of cinder-blocks and 2x4’s.
Read More | Questo Design
A 98-inch Screen on the Ceiling? Thanks, Mom
Posted by Mark Rollins Categories: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment,
I don’t know about you, but there are some nights where I have trouble sleeping, and I could really just stare up at giant 98-inch video screen to help get me to sleep.
Well, this isn’t why Patti Deni installed a display with a NEC NP4001 projector in her kid’s room, but I definitely applaud her if she was trying to spoil her kid. Apparently, her son spends a lot of time editing and watching videos, so she wanted to help his hobby.
Apparently, the entire ceiling had to be rebuilt to accommodate this expensive remodel, but if this kid grows up to be the next Steven Spielberg or Peter Jackson, then it is a small price to pay. Personally, I think that all bedrooms should have TVs on the ceiling.
Read More | Electronic House
Sonos announces the Sonos Controller 200 CR200 touchscreen remote
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Features, Home Entertainment, Music, Wireless / WiFi,
We’ve been waiting on this for a long, long time, and we are happy to share the news that Sonos has officially announced the Sonos Controller 200 CR200 remote. Why is this news to be excited about? Well, if you’re a Sonos owner (or a potential owner,) this means that you get a touchscreen Sonos remote, rather than the old-school click wheel version of the remote. Like the rest of the Sonos gear, this will work anywhere in the home, is meant to be a shared device that can be left in a common area, is more intuitive, turns on instantly when picked up, and has a nice capacitive VGA touchscreen. It even has a replaceable battery. The only thing that the old remote has that this new one doesn’t is that the new one isn’t water-resistant and splash proof. The Sonos CR200 goes on sale tomorrow, and will sell for $349, $50 less than the older model. Even better, the Sonos Controller 100 will be heavily discounted until they are sold out, so if you do want a splash-proof Sonos Controller that you can take to the hot tub, now’s your chance.
We’ve played with the new remote (video coming shortly!) and we can very easily recommend it - it makes finding music from the vast number of libraries and services that Sonos can connect to a breeze, because when you have that much music, a clickwheel just won’t measure up. Be sure to check out our Sonos Controller 200 gallery for a bunch of images of the new remote.
Read More | Sonos Controllers
Gallery:
Advertisement
© Gear Live Inc. {year} – User-posted content, unless source is quoted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain License. Gear Live graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, videos, articles, blogs, forums, scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Gear Live Inc.