Podcast #813: Whole House Audio, Z-Wave and Smart Speakers

Use the freedom and flexibility of any Bluetooth speaker(s) to create your own, DIY multi-zone audio system. Z-Wave is making installation easier with SmartStart - this may just be the year of home automation. If not, it certainly is the year of the smart speaker, and for some reason October was the month of the big reveal.

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Podcast #803: Element 55” 4K Ultra HDTV, Fire TV Edition Review

In addition to the plethora of native Smart TV interfaces on the market, we’ve seen TVs come out with the Smart interface provided by a third party like Roku or Google. Amazon has recently jumped into that group as well by partnering with TV manufacturers to bring the full FireTV experience directly into the television set. We got our hands on the 55” 4K model from Element and got to play around with it for a bit.

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Podcast #799: Prime Day and Vacation Automation

Back for the third installment, Amazon Prime Day hits next week. There's a lot to be ready for, and so many deals to be had. And with summer vacation season in full swing, we also have an in-depth look at how we use automation to make us feel at home while on vacation. Maybe some of our ideas will spark some new additions to your own home automation setup. And if you're lucky they may even be on sale on Prime Day.

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Podcast #764: Kodi

There has been an explosion of devices recently, or perhaps going back a couple years, that are based on the Kodi Media Center software or include Kodi as a standard app you can run along with other the other apps available on the device. A simple search at Amazon for ‘Kodi’ yields pages and pages of options for devices. Intrigued by this streaming platform that seems to have taken off like wildfire, we decided to pick up one of these little boxes and see what all the fuss is about.

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Podcast #762: Vudu Movies on Us

You’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t think Netflix totally changed the game in home entertainment. First, with the unlimited DVD rentals for a small monthly fee. They essentially ended the video store business. Then, with the shift into unlimited streaming movies, anywhere, anytime, again for a small monthly fee. It has changed the way most of us watch movies, and in some cases, television series. They’ve been so succesful, others, like Amazon, have tried to copy their model. But you can’t be king forever. Someone will eventually come along with a different game changer and dethrone you.

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Podcast #711: Instant Home Theater in Two Hours or Less

Amazon Prime changed the game. You can have pretty much anything you need, including an entire home theater, delivered to your home in two days or less. And you never have to get off the couch. A recent conversation with a friend who needed a TV and an HDMI cable and had them delivered in an hour using the new Prime Now app got us thinking. What if you wanted an entire home theater delivered to your home within an hour or two? Is that even possible?

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