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Download Free technews From viewzoft Although theres a lot of grumbling in the UK about that £135 ($270) yearly television license fee (only $87 for a black and white set!), its hard to complain that the BBC doesnt try to use all that money in cool ways. Adding to their already-ambitious plans to distribute HDTV through torrent, datacasting, and IPTV, the Beeb announced today that, after years of delays, theyve been approved to pair up with ITV and launch a free 200-channel HD-capable satellite service called Freesat in the spring of 2008. The move is designed to provide digital service to the estimated 25% of the British public that cant get the successful Freeview DVB-T service, but itll also be free to any license payer who ponys up for one of the several available interactive receivers. Hmm, thats an interesting version of "free," must be the British spelling. ( Read More )
Download Free technews From viewzoft The quixotic race to make the worlds smallest HDTV got a little tighter today with this 15.4-inch TV / DVD combo from Bush. Featuring 720p resolution and an HDMI port, its not the smallest HD-ready panel weve ever seen, but its certainly the smallest you can actually go out and buy. While you probably wont be using this little guy to settle that 1080i-vs-1080p debate, were not going to complain about hi-res panels filtering down to even the cheap-o TV / DVD player combo level. We are going to complain about the ridiculous £250 ($500) this thing will set you back, though, as well as the lack of a Freeview tuner, which means youll need some kind of external box to view any HD content. No deets on availability, but with a plethora of solid 19- to 22-inch HD-ready displays at that price point, its not like anyones really chomping at the bit here. ( Read More )
Download Free technews From viewzoft Though Savant Systems "Rosie" home control system is in pre-beta right now, its aims for the home automation and media server markets are still quite lofty, and the team seems to have the chops to back it up. The modular system is centered around the Rosie Server, which features dual Xeon 5100 procs, 32GB of DDR RAM and 2.25TB of RAID 5 storage. Its all controlled from an interesting touchwheel remote (that weird bowl-ish thing in the picture above) and various touchpanels, and can pipe high quality audio, 1080p video, and home automation commands throughout your home. Setup is purportedly 1/100th of the time of competing solutions, thanks to some fancy modular design. Savant is planning several packages for its system, including the Rosie Control, which includes a full complement of home control serial, GPIO and IR ports; the Rosie Video Switch, which packages the Rosie Control with an 8 x 8 HDMI switch; the Rosie Audio, which features iTunes-based media management and all sorts of high-end audio specs and outputs; and the Rosie Combo which throws it all together in one, and were sure will cost your life savings. No word on when this is due or what itll cost, but well be keeping an eye out for sure. ( Read More )
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