Podcast #396: HD Fury 2 and Home Automation with Insteon

As Daylight Savings time draws to a close those of us with lights on a timer need to do our bi-annual ritual of readjusting the settings so lights are on when it gets dark. This year Ara decided that he wanted to look into home automation so his lighting could be set once. He decided to go with an Insteon System starter package that included two lamp controllers, one appliance controller, a computer interface, access points for the mesh network, a remote control, and software.

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Podcast #395: brite-View CinemaTube and Philips Prestigo SRU8008

We'll admit it, there are other companies that make remote controls.  We decided to try one this week.  The Prestigo 8008 is a cool remote with a color screen, but how does it stack up to the entry level Harmony 510?  Excellent question.

And we had a chance this week to take a look at the CinemaTube from brite-View.  It's a network media player that supports full 1080p/60 video and Dolby Digital and DTS audio, so it's right up our alley.  After all, who wants to stream video if you can't get it in high def?

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Podcast #394: Zune HD

All of us have a need to take our content on the road for one reason or another. There are plenty of devices that can do that for you. Anything from an iPod or a laptop to a portable media center. You can choose the ultra portability of an iPod but you'll give up video quality. If you want HD quality you can use a laptop or portable media center but those are a bit bigger and more difficult to drag around with you. Today we are taking a look at the ZuneHD. With the Zune you can have ultra portability and HD video quality in one nice looking package.

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Tom Andry of AV Rant Interview

Ara had the opportunity to speak with Tom Andry of AV Rant. We hope you enjoy this bonus mid-week show!

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Podcast #393: Harmony 700 Universal Remote

Not content with what the HT Guys have declared the best universal remote on the market, Logitech continues to put out new Harmony Universal Remotes.  Of the two most recent models on the market, the Harmony 700 and the Harmony 900, we've had a chance to look at the 700.  It is the less expensive of the two, and can be found in retail stores and online for an MSRP of $150 US (Buy Now).

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Podcast #392: Belkin Gigabit Powerline Ethernet Adapter

With so many devices connecting to the Internet these days we like to see products like Powerline Ethernet adapters come to market. In general the technology has improved vastly since our first review back in 2006. At that time we reviewed a product that was rated at 85Mbps and we were lucky if we got 10 Mbps. So imagine our excitement when we heard about the Gigabit Adapter from Belkin (Model # F5D4076).

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