Podcast #483: Over the Air TV Signals - Are They Still Needed?

On the last two shows we discussed comments made by CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro stating that, "using huge swaths of wireless spectrum to deliver TV to homes no longer makes economic sense. Congress should pass legislation to allow for incentive auctions so free market dynamics can find the best purposes for underused broadcast spectrum, such as wireless broadband." In the CEAs findings they stated that only 8% of the US population EXCLUSIVELY receives their TV signals through the air. We feel that this number is artificially stated as low. The survey polled 1,256 adults but it did not say where the respondents were located. If the survey was done in rural communities that number may be as high as 25%.

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Podcast #482: The Best HDTV Widgets

An HDTV Widget is an application that runs on an Internet-connected HDTV, sometimes called a “Smart TV” or other home-theater device, like many Blu-ray players, a Roku, the Boxee Box or a Google TV, that offers functionality beyond the traditional TV watching experience. There are a plethora of these widgets, some useful, some not so useful. We’ve assembled our list of the best, or most useful, HDTV Widgets available right now.

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Podcast #475: Zediva and the Blu-ray Process

Recently we were talking with an old friend of ours who works for a movie studio in the Blu-ray production facility. This got us thinking about what it takes to create a disc filled with all that high definition goodness. Today we are going to take a high level look at what is entailed in producing a Blu-ray disc.

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Podcast #470: Samsung BD-D6500 Blu-ray player

There’s a lot of talk about streaming movies eventually taking over for conventional disc based media like DVD and Blu-ray. But we all know the quality just isn’t quite there yet to eliminate Blu-ray entirely. So what are you to do? Why not buy a Blu-ray player that also streams movies so you’re covered for both cases? If it also supports 3D, you’re triple covered. That’s what you get with the Samsung BD-D6500.

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Podcast #467: SRS iWow 3D and Amazon Instant Streaming

This week Amazon announced that Amazon Prime members will get instant streaming of 5,000 movies and TV shows. We are big fans of Amazon Prime. You get free two day shipping on almost anything Amazon sells. But with free unlimited streaming of 5,000 movies its a no brainer...or is it?

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Podcast #465: McTiVia Review

Updated on Feb 13 by HT Guys

In the traditional sense a computer connected to your TV is commonly referred to as a Home Theater PC or HTPC. This requires you to dedicate a computer connected to the TV or at least use a Media Extender device like an Xbox 360. On today’s show we look at a device that is part Media Extender and part HDMI extension cord.  We are talking about the McTiVia ($230 with shipping) and it works with both Windows and Macs.

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