There are ordinary mortals who throw Super Bowl parties. And then there is Pete Putman, occasional Home Theater contributor and the HDTV expert of hdtvexpert.com. He put the big game on nine different screens scattered throughout the house (and one outside it). So whose display chugged away in sub-freezing weather? Which had pride of place in Pete's workshop theater? How did the portable pocket projector do? And whose screen was featured in the bathroom, "positioned at an angle to viewers at the door, the sink, and on the throne"? Check out the fully illustrated story for yourself.
Hot on the heels of Wal-Mart Video Downloads, Amazon is looking to attract more customers to its Unbox service by teaming up with TiVo. Currently in beta, "Amazon Unbox on TiVo" would allow owners of Series2 or -3 TiVos to download and play Unbox videos. Sorry, Series1 and DirecTV TiVo owners can't participate. Besides the TiVo, you'll also need an Amazon account, and you'll need to link it to your TiVo account. A movie download will take anywhere from an hour (with broadband) to five hours (with dial-up). Your downloads will appear on the TiVo's now-playing list. They will not work with the TiVoToGo or multi-room features, but you can download to other devices using Unbox RemoteLoad. More details from Amazon or TiVo.
Research firm Informa Telecoms & Media forecasts that there will be 151 million HDTV homes worldwide by the end of 2011 - a three-fold increase over the current total of almost 43 million.
Sure, satellite radio is great. But for many listeners, there are still times when they want to come back to earth, so to speak. For those listeners and those times, Cambridge SoundWorks offers a new line of high-performance radios, including this trio of terrestrials.
Bullish on Blu-ray? Need something to watch on that new player? Premiere.com and Soundandvisionmag.com have joined forces to give away a prize pack of eight Blu-ray discs, including The Usual Suspects, The Sentinel, Phone Booth, and Planet of the Apes to one lucky visitor.
In a turnabout from the traditional consumer electronics paradigm in which the hardware is given away for free or at drastically reduced prices in order to entice potential subscribers to sign on the dotted line and pay juicy monthly fees to the content provider, the HD Radio Alliance is now promoting the availability of a pricey HD Radio add-on for car stereos that will enable users to access free HD Radio content and services.
