Introduction

From afar, it’s easy to mistake the Sony VAIO VGN-NR385E/W as a possible Apple MacBook. After all, this system shares many of the same qualities as a MacBook - smooth white color, rounded corners, and a solid construction. Of course, once you get closer (and you see the VAIO logo emblazoned across the top), you’ll quickly realize that this is indeed a Sony VAIO system. The Sony NR series is Sony’s value oriented notebook series which aims to deliver a balance between performance, style, and value.

On the performance front, this notebook delivers an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a bright 15.4 inch widescreen display, and a large capacity 200GB internal hard drive. For style.. well the mere fact that it looks somewhat like a MacBook says it all right? And for value, the VGN-NR385E/W is fairly inexpensive - with many places selling this system for as low as $600 dollars after rebates or instant savings. Join me as I take a look at the Sony VAIO VGN-NR385E/W.

(more…)

Technorati Tags: Sony VGN-NR385E/W, Review

About a month ago, I posted a little commentary about a project I wanted to embark on at home. The goal was to turn my Apple Mac mini into a full fledged Windows Vista system for the sole purpose of running Windows Media Center. Why embark on this project? Reason 1: It was about time I upgraded my original home theater PC which I built back in 2005 and was starting to creak under Windows Vista (it’s still great for XP!). Reason 2: I wanted to move to a small form factor than my previous system. Although the previous HTPC looked great within my A/V rack, it was huge, heavy, and somewhat loud due to aging ball bearing fans (which I was too lazy to upgrade).  Yes, it was time to downsize to a smaller form factor.

It’s actually funny that I even considered this route. I felt like I was tracing back to my earlier roots with this project. When I first got into constructing Home Theater PC (HTPC) systems years ago, I toyed with several Shuttle XPC based small form factor systems. In the end, I opted for a larger box since it looked so darn sexy in my home theater rack and had plenty of room for expansion. After a few years with a large box, I was finally ready to go small again. The question was - how small did I want to get?

Now, I could have gone the Shuttle route again (and I still might - more on that later) or I could have purchased something like the HP Pavilion Slimline PC. Ultimately, I chose the Apple Mac mini primarily because I had one handy and I wanted to see what it was like transforming it into a Vista based Media Center HTPC. Would it work well under Vista? Would I be able to do all the things I envisioned?  Hopefully I’ll be able to answer these questions and then some in this writeup. The purpose of this writeup is to cover all the steps that I took to build my Apple Mac mini home theater system utilizing Windows Vista and the Windows Media Center application. Is it my final setup? Probably not but it proves it indeed is a viable, solid, and reliable solution.

Finally, I apologize ahead of time if some of you think I might have “bastardized” the Mac mini by installing Vista. I also want to give credit where credit is due - primarily to two blog postings I read before starting this prokect - one over at markwilson.it and one over at Mauricio Freitas’s website here. Let’s get started shall we?

(more…)

Plasma TV Installation ; Buy a New Plasma TV? Have it installed professionally, by Interstar Home Theater

Technorati Tags: Apple Mac mini, Windows Vista, Windows Media Center, Xbox 360 Media Center Extender, Converting Apple Mac mini to Windows Media Center

Introduction

Do you find yourself running out of HDMI inputs on your receiver or HDTV? If you’re like me, then the answer to that question is probably a resounding yes. The coming of HDMI greatly simplified home theater systems by combining the video and audio (and control) signals into a single cable. However, this simplicity also brings a problem to consumers. As more and more devices embrace HDMI, we’re running into a problem of a limited number of HDMI inputs on receivers and HDTV sets. You could get around this by buying a high end A/V receiver with four HDMI inputs but these receivers are typically rather expensive. Could we solve this by connecting to an HDTV? Problematic there also as many HDTV’s only have one or two or at most three inputs. What do you do then when you have an HDMI enabled cable box, PS3, and Xbox 360 and you only have two HDMI inputs to work with? You add an HDMI switch into the picture of course. That’s pretty much the problem I faced earlier this year when I finally caved and purchased a Sony PlayStation 3. I desperately needed more HDMI switches. Thus, today I’ll be looking at one such switch commonly found at local Best Buy stores. It’s called the Psyclone PSC47 and it’s one of the more expensive switches out on the market (at $199.99). Let’s see if the PSC47 is worth the money!

(more…)

Technorati Tags: Psyclone, HDMI Selector, Model PSC47, Review, HDMI Switch

As mentioned earlier, Apple released version 2 of their Apple TV software today (or now yesterday). You can find information about the upgrade here at Apple’s website. Some of the new features of the version 2 upgrade include:

• Supports movie rentals direct from Apple TV
• Built-in music store (via iTunes)
• Access to Flickr photostreams and .Mac web galleries - all from Apple TV
• Automatically checks for new software every week
• Rent and download HD movies
• New user interface design

I checked out the update tonight and decided to take some snapshots of the overall update process as well as some of the new user interface elements and features of Apple TV. This is NOT a comprehensive overview of the new version - just a quick early primer.

(more…)

Technorati Tags: Apple TV, Take 2, Update, Preview

Introduction:

If there’s anything anyone can agree about the Apple iPhone, it’s this - it’s absolutely beautiful. You spend an obscene amount of money for a smartphone which arguably can be considered a work of art, thus wouldn’t you want to protect it? While it might be a bit late to protect my iPhone from scratches (which I’ve had since the first day the phone was made available in late June), I thought it would be good to take a look at a couple of iPhone cases made by the folks at Incase. Today, we’ll take a quick look at the Incase Molded Rubber Protective Case for the Apple iPhone which retails for $29.95.

(more…)

Technorati Tags: Incase, Protective Cover, Apple iPhone, Review, Krunker

Introduction

Up until fairly recently, I had a multi-monitor setup here in my home office. Two standard 19 inch LCD monitors comprised my dual display desktop and as a result, I was quite happy and content with things - that was until my 8 year old 19 inch NEC monitor decided to die on me. All of a sudden, gone was the real estate afforded to me by two 1280 x 1024 displays and suddenly a single 19 inch display felt utterly handicapping - especially when you’re writing a lot of articles for a blog site like Krunker (or if you’re writing code etc). So.. what to do? I decided to go out on the market for a nice 20 to 22 inch widescreen LCD monitor. After searching around, I was pleasantly surprised to see these widescreen LCD monitors in the range of $200 to $300 dollars. But what exactly was the difference between a budget $200 dollar monitor vs. a higher end $300+ monitor? I decided to experiment and find out by getting the LG L222WT-BF 21.6 inch widescreen LCD monitor which was on sale this week (Week starting 11/18/2007) at Best Buy for $219.99 before taxes. Join me as I quickly go over this monitor and see if it’s worth the asking price or whether it’s better to drop a bit more cash for something a tad bit better.

(more…)

Technorati Tags: LG, L222WT-BF, 21.6 widescreen LCD monitor, Review, Krunker

A few weeks ago, Palm sent out email invitations to anyone who might be interested in attending a sneak peek event showcasing the newly announced Palm Foleo Mobile Companion. I registered for the event at that time and nearly forgot that it was actually tonight - that is until my Palm Treo (ironically enough) reminded me this morning. The Foleo Sneak Peek Event was held at the small Palm retail store located at the Grove in Los Angeles (seriously.. it’s a small store). I dropped by for a few hours after work to take some pictures of the device, ask some questions, and see what tidbits I could gleam from the Palm representatives there. Before I get into the details, here are two important takeaways to start things off:

1. Palm would not disclose the nitty gritty specs of the device (sorry - no word on the amount of memory or the processor type/speed)
2. The Foleo is ALL about email.

Ah yes, Palm also served some free (and pretty good) food as well free drinks at the sneak peek event. Yes.. I do enjoy free things from time to time. Palm handed out goodie bags for folks who finished up and were ready to leave the event. Inside the goodie bags were a travel mug, an SD card with music loaded on it, some Foleo marketing materials, mints and a Starbucks gift certificate.

Yes that’s nice and all - but we’re here to talk about the Foleo right? So let’s get down to it shall we?

(more…)

Technorati Tags: Palm Foleo, Sneak Peek, The Grove, Los Angeles, Palm,

I must admit that when Apple first announced that YouTube support was coming to Apple TV, I yawned. Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely love YouTube and I think it’s revolutionized the way we think about content on the web. However, I just couldn’t imagine the concept of watching YouTube videos from the comfort of my own living room. I honestly never had the desire to do so before so why would I want to now? YouTube, for me, was relegated to the computer screen - not my HDTV display. Thus when Apple announced the Apple TV update was finally available on Wednesday.. I yawned yet again. I thought to myself “That’s nice. I finally get some YouTube videos. Big Whoop.”

Well folks - after updating Apple TV tonight and playing with some of the YouTube functionality and of course watching some YouTube videos, I am here to say that I was wrong with my early judgments and I am now a believer of the concept. OMG.. did a PC fan boy just say that? Yup.. he did. So let’s go over the latest Apple update to Apple TV and in particular, let’s look at what YouTube and Apple TV has to offer.

(more…)

No Tags

After nearly four years with my Sony 34 inch HDTV Tube TV set, I finally decided an upgrade was in store.. but what would I upgrade to? HDTV sets have come such a long way over the last few years with prices dropping substantially and displays with 1080p resolutions becoming much more prominent. After some careful research, I decided to purchase the Samsung LN-S4695D 46 inch 1080p LCD display and wow.. I was floored. I was honestly hesitant in purchasing a new LCD or plasma display - especially after seeing prices plummet for the last year or so. However since we decided to move to a new place a few months back, I thought.. well.. why not? So here I am, reviewing the Samsung LN-S4695D display. Now I’ll be honest with you - I’m not a pro at reviewing television sets at all nor do I have all the cool color equipment to see what color accuracy is like on this display. What you’ll see in this review are the specs to the display, my take on what “I’ve” seen thus far, and my final commentary. If you want a more detailed review, I’m sure you’ll be able to find one online somewhere. So let’s have at it!

(more…)

No Tags

Microsoft released their Spring Update patch to the Xbox 360 console today. You can read about the actual fixes and improvements made to the system here on Microsoft’s website. In the meantime, I shot some still images of the upgrade process from this morning. This isn’t a review of the patch but more of a quick pictorial of changes made to the Xbox 360 Dashboard. Enjoy!

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Xbox 360, Spring Update, Pictures, Pictorial