Dancing with the commoners

It may look like a joke but I'm hoping its not. I'm thinking, the IDP + My favorite drink of choice = hours of non-stop fun. Now, if they could only integrate some kind of video projector along with it...

[ winamp is currently decoding: Succumb To The Night (Mike Koglin Remix) by DT8 Project ]

The gift that keeps on giving...

I'm not sure how I managed to overlook this little gem but now that I've found it, I'm hooked. Since I don't have the space to dedicate an entire room to a home theater I'm left with a not too shabby multi-purpose setup that does us just fine.

You just can't help but lust after and be inspired by some of the trick setups documented by the Audio/Video Interiors Blog.

I'm a definite move nut and my current DVD collection and 4,323 movie ratings on Netflix proves it. When Karen and I finally cash out of this state to our dream house I'll definitely put this at the top of my list. In the mean time, take a look at some of the setups and let your mind think about the endless possibilities.

[ winamp is currently decoding: What You Won't Do For Love by Go West ]

I love it when a plan comes together

With the advent of digital photography and music downloads I've been facing the dilemma of needing a new hard drive more often than I would like. Now, I'm finally at the point that losing our media library due to a failed drive would probably involve a lot of weeping and gnashing of teeth...

A couple of months ago I decided to remedy this problem but trying to find a perfect solution has been difficult. My main criteria was 1GB on the NIC, Media server capabilities, USB 2.0 hub and some type of redundancy - preferably a RAID configuration. There were few solutions that were fast enough for my tastes (I stream content to my XBMC) and not complicated by the addition of client software or loud cooling mechanisms.

On a fluke visit to Micro Center over the weekend I found a solution that works out great (in the clearance section no less) and will protect my data so I can rest at night without worrying about losing all my music files: Buffalo Tech's TeraStation Home Server

If you're interested in something similar you should either look into something like the TeraStation or the Drobo. Both are equally good but I just couldn't see spending top dollar for the Drobo. There are also smaller NAS units available from Netgear and similar vendors but they all have quirks or don't have the higher Ethernet connection speeds.

So far its working like a champ and its quieter than having a dedicated workstation sharing folders on a local drive. As an added bonus; it looks cool too...

[ winamp is currently decoding: By This River by Martin L Gore ]

The Future is Blu... Whatever.

Well, by now the fall out of the Warner Brother's announcement made at CES is becoming painfully obvious. There are already shouts of victory from the Blu-Ray camp and the HD DVD group is definitely back-pedaling as they slash prices on their media and their hardware.

Now, this news is bittersweet for me. I was a staunch supporter of HD DVD (for my own tech geek reasons), so for now, it looks like my side has lost. Oh well, I was on the right side for the DIVX vs DVD debacle but that was a little obvious. Of course, when you hear about Sony's "pay-offs" it's not hard to realize why Blu-Ray got the leg up. The down side is that my format of choice has lost, but on the other hand... now that it looks like we have a clear winner we can get on to the business of lowering prices and fattening up the movie libraries.

While I may be tempted to revisit such releases like "The Fifth Element" or possibly the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy I will not be re-buying everything. After all, that would be expensive - at currently count I have 1132 DVDs... The only real drawback to this whole thing is that the only way to get the new lossless audio formats is to upgrade my receiver - damn. Don't get me wrong, I love buying new gadgets but I was hoping just to skate by on a new player, alas, that is not going to be the case.

I'm still hoping there will be a miraculous turn around in this whole thing but when you pony up millions of dollars like Sony did, you expect to keep everyone in the fold. My hats off to you Sony, it was a pretty good coup.

As a closer, I leave you with this brief clip detailing the derailment of the HD DVD format. Its insight is priceless. (Warning, the following clip contains some expletives - small children might find it hilarious even if they don't get the gist of the various references made)

Drool

I want one: The Apple iPhone