CES 2006: Dan Ackerman
Dan Ackerman covers the intersection of computers and home theater and has written about technology, games, music, and nightlife for more than a decade. A former radio DJ with a couple of albums under his belt (look him up on iTunes), his work has appeared in publications including USA Today, Sync, and amNewYork.
To get your media content from the computer to the living room entertainment center generally involves either lugging a computer in to connect directly, or using some kind of media extender.
These devices connect via your home network to the computer storing your photos,... ( read
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Gaming chair manufacturer HotSeat has found a clever way to promote its HotSeat PC Gamer gaming chair: an automobile-style gaming chair designed for racing games. The company's bundling it with the officially licensed NASCAR PC from ZT Group's retail brand, Cisnet (as
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While Intel's Viiv has certainly garnered more than its share of press over the past few months, many of the actual specifics of what makes up a Viiv system have been fuzzy at best. We knew the basics--Media Center OS, 5.1 audio, and Instant On/Off feaures, but the actual CPUs and chipsets were... ( read
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Akimbo started life as a set-top box, bringing on-demand IPTV content to TV viewers. Even with a good selection of mainstream and narrowcast content, such as the Discovery Channel, the BBC, and foreign language programming, it's sometimes hard to justify another set-top box living next to the... ( read
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Taking a quick look at the new and improved Media Center front-end for Windows Vista, we saw some interesting tweaks to the user interface and a live demonstration of HD cable through CableCARD.
Still sporting the same light blue color scheme as the classic Media Center... ( read
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Niveus has been producing high-end Media Center machines for several years, and they're almost as well known for their steep price tags as their inventive designs. The nearly $6,000 Niveus Denali, for example, is designed to be a totally silent PC, housed in a fanless case that acts as a giant... ( read
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Media front end SageTV has embraced the DIY crowd with some of its latest releases, which include a Linux version of the Sage software and the SageTV SDK (software development kit), which allows anyone with a little programming knowledge to create a customized user interface and functionality.... ( read
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Sony's most ambitious foray into the world of living-room computers was the VAIO XL1 Digital Living System. Designed as a two-part, rack-style media hub with a dual-core VAIO PC and a matching 200-disc DVD changer, the XL1 was a great idea for movie and music buffs with large catalogs of media,... ( read
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With Intel's Viiv platform garnering lots of attention, it's no surprise that rival AMD is getting onboard the entertainment PC bandwagon, coming up with its own tag for PCs that meet certain hardware/software specs, dubbed AMD Live!, complete with hyperactive exclamation point. The designation,... ( read
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Anyone can take an old PC and a handful of hard drives, stick them in a closet, and call it a media server. But if you have the kind of disposable income that Kaleidescape owners have (which is to say, a lot), somehow that doesn't seem very fulfilling.
For the past few... ( read
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