This week the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) released a regulatory filing to the FCC detailing the deployment of CableCARD to consumer devices from the top five cable companies. Details were included from Cablevision, Charter Communications, Comcast, Cox Communications, and Time Warner Cable, although the report provided summary data of the top 10 companies. According to the report “over 554,000 CableCARDs deployed for use in retail devices by the ten largest incumbent cable operators.” Of course the NCTA, who has fought against the CableCARD rules from their initial drafting, was very quick to point out that since the CableCARD rules have gone into effect those same ten companies have “deployed more than 32,000,000 operator-supplied set-top boxes with CableCARDs.”

Fortunately, not everything written in the document’s 13 pages was pure rhetoric. There was also a lot of interesting data about how many CableCARDs have been deployed, how many of them were installed by technicians vs. the customers doing self installs, and how many truck rolls (service calls resulting in a technician being sent to the customer’s house) were required in the first 30 days to get a CableCARD deployment operational.

Comcast is the largest cable company in the country, so it makes sense that they would have the most consumer CableCARD systems deployed. Of the companies that reported the self install rate, Comcast fits right in the middle. The number they reported, 29%, is about what I would have expected. It’s not a tiny number, but it’s sufficiently large given that a consumer who did enough research to decide to buy/build their own set-top-box or home theater PC, is probably also reasonably comfortable installing their own gadgets too. The number of truck rolls required also points out some interesting data. Cablevision customers and technicians appear to be doing the best job of getting things working on the first effort where Charter obviously has some work to do! The other interesting piece of data here is Cablevision’s self install percentage. Did 57% of their CableCARD customers really do their own installations? If so, then our respect goes out to those 22,000 customers who, not only installed on their own, where pretty successful at getting it all working.

The first thing you’ll probably notice in this chart is that it’s supposed to show data per quarter, but it only has data for quarters two and four. Unfortunately, the NCTA isn’t very consistent with their FCC filings. In fact, Q4 isn’t even technically accurate as the data actually covers September through December of 2011. Putting all that aside, the numbers themselves are interesting. In four of the top five companies CableCARD subscribers grew. In two cases, Cablevision and Cox, the growth was even at a pretty significant percentage. Comcast, on the other hand, dropped more than 36,000 CableCARD subscribers. We don’t have Comcast’s fourth quarter subscriber numbers yet, because they aren’t releasing those details until February 15th. Since we don’t know if Comcast lost video customers for the quarter, the only other assumption that we could make is that many of these CableCARD customers switched to Comcast’s newer Xfinity DVRs.

The last chart just shows the number of CableCARDs deployed as a percentage of the company’s total subscribers. Even given the large percent of Comcast customers who switched from using CableCARD in a consumer device, they are still out in front. If Cablevision continues the rate of growth from Q4 into 2012 they will very quickly overtake Comcast.

So despite the cable industry’s ongoing assault against CableCARD, in favor of their own locked-down boxes, I think it’s safe to say that CableCARD is doing well. While we know that home-built home theater PCs don’t make up the majority of these CableCARD installs, we certainly hope to see more people building Windows 7 Media Center boxes equipped with any one of the many CableCARD tuners currently available. We’re also excited to see Ceton going up against Tivo directly with their Q Entertainment Platform.

Souce: NCTA

What you will need:

• WHS 2011
• Separate storage drives in the WHS2011
• Windows 7 running Windows Media Center

I will assume that you have already set up your WHS2011. So the first step is to open the WHS2011 Dashboard and go to the Server Folders and Hard Drives section. By default, WHS assigns default locations to where it thinks you want to store your files. We do not want to go this route. Instead, we want to choose a specific folder. So go ahead and select the Recorded TV folder, and take note of its location. If it is not where you want to store your files then simply press “Move the Folder” button.

If you do this you will now see a list of possible locations that you can move the folder to. So go ahead and pick a different hard drive to put your Recorded TV on to. Another thing we will want to do is Turn off Shadow Copies for this hard drive. If you desire you can keep Shadow copies on, but it’s not necessary since you are probably already running a RAID. Next, click on “Hard Drives” and select the hard drive that the Recorded TV folder is now on and click “View Properties”. Now under the “Shadow Copies” tab uncheck the “Enable Shadow Copies” box to disable it.

We are all done on the Home Server. Now if you haven’t installed the WHS connector software on your HTPC you will want to do that now. To do so simply go to a web browser on your HTPC and enter http://<servername>/connect and install the software. After you have done this you will want to open up WMC. Right under “Extras” you will now see a nice new tab called “Home Server”. Unlike WHS v1 there is only 1 option here, which is TV Archive.

Once you select this, you have 4 options.

• Series –> Select specific series that you want to have copied to your WHS
• Programs –> Select specific recordings that you want to have copied to your WHS.
• Settings –> There is only 1 option which is to automatically back up everything to your WHS.
• Activity –> View if files have been copied over to your WHS

So for instance I can tell my WMC to backup this episode of 30 Rock by checking it and hitting save.

After I hit save I can now go into activity and see that is is being archived directly to my WHS:

If I simply open up WHS in windows explorer I can see that it is currently being copied over as well.

So there you have it. The important part is to specify on your WHS where you want your Recorded TV to pull from. Your archived shows should still show up in your Recorded TV folder. If they do not simply go to Settings->Media Libraries->Recorded TV->Add Folder->On another computer –>Select WHS –> Select Recorded TV Folder and you should be go to go.

If you are interested in purchasing Windows Home Server 2011, it is available on Amazon for as little as $45!

UltraViolet à la Paramount

Let’s start with Paramount’s UltraViolet offering, in general. You may want to seriously consider those iTunes and Windows Media options, because Paramount’s flavor of UltraViolet doesn’t seem fully baked yet. You need to sign up for yet another account (just like at UVVU, Flixster, Sony, and Universal), so we’re up to five accounts now with only four of the majors in the pool. Once you’ve registered, linked, and logged in, you can redeem, view, and download your Paramount titles.

Paramount's proprietary download manager doubles as the only playback mechanism for their UltraViolet titles

You’ll need to install yet another retailer-specific program to download and play Paramount’s UltraViolet titles offline on your PC or Mac. That’s about where the similarities end.

Like the other studios, Paramount’s site is designed to show you not just their titles, but all of the titles in your UltraViolet locker. At release time and as of this writing, this feature doesn’t work properly. We reported the issue to Paramount’s UltraViolet help desk and promptly received a message from Zukor LLC explaining that “you will only be able to see your Paramount Ultra Violet digital copies.” Actually…not true. The page is there—it’s intended to show the other titles; Paramount’s FAQs clearly state that “you will be able to see your entire UltraViolet library;” oh…and UltraViolet is one word.

Your UltraViolet library on Paramount's site may appear slightly broken

Unlike with every other UltraViolet retailer, the only option for viewing UltraViolet titles on iOS devices is by streaming, over WiFi, from paramountmovies.com. You can’t watch them in Flixster, so you can’t watch them offline on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch. To clarify, they’ll show up in your collection in Flixster, but you can’t play or download them there. That also means you can’t watch them on your Google TV and you can’t watch them on your Android phone or tablet. In one test, we couldn’t even stream a title on a 4-month old Windows 7 PC with no explanation as to why.

Paramount’s Digital Store

Paramount is the first retailer to offer direct sales of UltraViolet digital titles. No discs—just the digital copy. They’ve rolled out an initial offering of about sixty titles, ranging from catalog titles Chinatown and the Beverly Hills Cop series to newer releases like Super 8 and the Paranormal Activity trilogy [please let this end as a trilogy]. Purchasing a title couldn’t be easier—select a title to buy, provide your credit card or PayPal account information, and the movie appears in your UltraViolet library. No shopping carts, no redemptions codes. It’s simple.

That’s about the end of the good news. First, let’s talk pricing. While we all might like to think that digital copies should be priced notably less than their packaged equivalents, we know from services like Amazon, iTunes, and VUDU that this is not usually the case. Most digital movies from these retailers cost between 7 and 15 dollars, or 15 to 20 dollars for HD. On iTunes, many of these digital movies do come with extras, like those included with packaged discs.

Paramount’s UltraViolet pricing is higher. Much higher. All catalog titles—whether two years old or fifty years old—are $12.99 in standard definition and $19.99 in HD. Newer titles are $16.99 in standard definition and $22.99 in HD. Many [why not all?] titles are also available to rent by streaming with the usual 30 day/48 hour limitations.

To put this pricing model in perspective, the guys on Seen in HD used this week’s Paranormal Activity 3 release as an example. For the UltraViolet movie in HD (with no extras), Paramount is charging $22.99. On Amazon, you can buy the Blu-ray combo pack with Blu-ray, DVD, and standard definition iTunes, Windows Media, and UltraViolet digital copies for $21.99.

For catalog titles, it’s even worse. Paramount is selling a standard definition UltraViolet copy of Airplane—a thirty year old film—for $12.99. A digital copy of the same movie costs $9.99 on iTunes or $6.49 on Amazon Instant Video. Or you can get a Zucker/Zucker/Abrahams Double Feature DVD including Airplane at Amazon for $9.99.

So there’s that. Then there’s the issue of playback. We already established that you can’t play Paramount’s UltraViolet titles on any disconnected device except for computers running their proprietary player. And since there aren’t any connected TVs or Blu-ray players available yet that support UltraViolet (and even those recently announced depend on Flixster), you probably can’t play these digital purchases on your TV. You can, of course, if you have a home theater PC, but even then you have to play them using Paramount’s custom desktop software, so forget about using your remote control.

HD playback is even more limited. To play Paramount’s HD UltraViolet videos, you must have an HDCP-compliant PC. Forget the Mac—it’s not supported. Your only hope of enjoying HD-quality video is on a Windows Vista or Windows 7 laptop or HTPC connected to an HDCP-compliant monitor with a DisplayPort, DVI-D or HDMI cable. Get all that?

And finally, while the other retailers download UltraViolet movies to your Videos folder as MP4 videos so they’re easily identifiable and transportable, Paramount instead plops thousands of tiny data files on your computer. The video we used for testing comprised 6,630 separate files with clever names like 00a4db57-7774-4907-b155-f054bc12981c. And now all of the other video programs that depend on your Videos folder get to parse through all of that crap.

Paramount clutters your Videos folder with thousands of data files

High Hopes Dashed

It’s widely recognized that UltraViolet has had a rocky start, and we’ve certainly hedged on recommending this technology, but we had high expectations for Paramount. These are the folks with some of the best movie franchises in their catalog, including, The Godfather, Indiana Jones, and Star Trek. Surely they’d want to make a big, successful splash at launch, right?

Instead, this launch is a big mess. It’s buggy, it’s extremely limited, and their digital titles are ridiculously expensive. Perhaps the only redeeming quality here is that Paramount is giving us an out as they continue to include iTunes and Windows Media digital copies in their combo packs. Our recommendation here should be obvious: save your money.

The new ZBOX Giga also includes lots of ways to connect it to your network and your other devices. Along with the standard 10/100/1000 Mb/s Ethernet port are 802.11N WiFi with dual antennas and built-in Bluetooth 3.0. For displays you have all kinds of options including HDMI, DisplayPort, and two DVI-I ports!

ZOTAC really seems to be targeting this at the HTPC community though. It’s small, beautiful, packs plenty of power, includes a slot-load Blu-ray/DVD drive (including Cyberlink PowerDVD for watching Blu-ray), and even comes with a Windows Media Center compatible remote. We couldn’t confirm with ZOTAC, but it looks like the IR receiver for the remote may even be built right into the front of the case. Their representatives told us that it should be hitting the US market in the next month and cost under $700.

Source: Zotac – Press Release – Product Sheet (pdf)

Be sure to check all of our CES coverage at The Digital Media Zone.

As the name indicates it’s based upon Intel’s D2700 Atom processor. The D2700 is a dual-core, hyperthreaded, 2.13 GHz processor. The video grunt work is handled by an oboard NVIDIA GeForce GT 520 sporting 512MB of DDR3 memory. This board is called the WiFi Supreme for a reason though. It packs 802.11N WiFi with dual antennas, and it also includes Bluetooth 2.0, along with a standard 10/100/1000Mbps Ethernet jack. With all of those options you won’t have any trouble connecting it to your network. The NVIDIA GT 520 graphics processor supports hardware accelerated video decoding, so watching Blu-ray, even 3D Blu-ray, won’t be a problem. For connecting to your TV or monitor it has pretty much every option imaginable. It offers HDMI, DVI, DisplayPort, and VGA (with an included adapter).

For expandability the D2700-ITX WiFi Supreme offers 2 SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports, 2 USB 3.0 ports, 6 USB 2.0 ports, and even a PCI Express x16 slot that would be handy for an internal TV tuner card. We can’t really think of anything that we would want from a board like this that the D2700-ITX WiFi Supreme doesn’t offer. While we’re sure it will handle live and recorded TV, Blu-ray, and pretty much any other local media you might have on your network, the Atom processor still makes us wonder how it will stand up to HD Netflix streams. Hopefully we can get our hands on one soon for a full review to let you know! See the press release below for full details.

Press Release:

New ZOTAC® D2700-ITX WiFi Supreme combines the latest energy-efficient CPU and GPU for superior energy-efficiency and stunning high-definition video

 

Jan. 11, 2012 – ZOTAC® International, a leading innovator and a channel manufacturer, today launches the ZOTAC® D2700-ITX WiFi Supreme – a next-generation mini-ITX platform for DIY home theater PC users. The ZOTAC® D2700-ITX WiFi Supreme combines the latest energy-efficient Intel® Atom™ processor with world-class NVIDIA® GeForce® graphics processing for superior energy-efficiency and stunning high-definition video playback.

 

The latest generation Intel® Atom™ D2700 CedarTrail processor with dual cores and Intel® HyperThreading™ technology enables the ZOTAC® D2700-ITX WiFi Supreme to deliver snappy multitasking responsiveness for everyday computing tasks. The NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 520 graphics processor equips the ZOTAC® D2700-ITX WiFi Supreme with hardware-accelerated Blu-ray 3D playback capabilities and HDMI 1.4a technology for the ultimate 3D high-definition experience.

 

“ZOTAC® platforms have been quite popular among home theater PC users. “The ZOTAC® D2700-ITX WiFi Supreme succeeds our award-winning IONITX series with upgrades to smoothly playback stereoscopic 3D content, output lossless audio formats and embrace Microsoft® DirectX® 11 technology while maintaining the compact mini-ITX form factor,” said Carsten Berger, marketing director, ZOTAC® International.

 

Expansion is plentiful with the ZOTAC® D2700-ITX WiFi Supreme platform, including two DDR3 DIMM slots, a PCI Express x16 (single-lane) expansion slot, two SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports and two USB 3.0 ports. Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 3.0 networking technologies round out the platform for lightning-fast network connectivity wired or wirelessly.

 

It’s time to play with the ZOTAC® D2700-ITX WiFi Supreme.

 

General details

• New ZOTAC® Next-Generation DIY home theater PC platforms
• ZOTAC D2700-ITX WiFi Supreme
• Intel® Atom™ D2700 (2.13 GHz, dual-core)
• NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 520 (512MB DDR3)
• 2 x DDR3-1066 DIMM slots
• Support up to 4GB memory
• Dual-link DVI, DisplayPort & HDMI outputs
• 1 PCI Express x16 (single-lane) expansion, 1 mSATA slot
• 2 SATA 3.0 Gb/s
• 2 USB 3.0 ports (back panel), 6 USB 2.0 ports (4 on back panel, 2 via pin headers)
• Gigabit Ethernet
• Hardware accelerated Blu-ray 3D playback
• Dolby® TrueHD & DTS-HD™ MA bitstream capable (HDMI) & 8-channel HD audio
• Microsoft® DirectX® 11 technology
• Onboard 802.11n WiFi & Bluetooth 3.0
• Mini-ITX form factor

Specifications:

Product Name	D2700-ITX WiFi Supreme
Chipset	Intel® NM10 Express
South Bridge	N/A (single-chip)
GPU	NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 520 w/512MB DDR3
CPU	Intel® Atom™ D2700 (2.13 GHz, dual-core)
System Bus	N/A
Memory support	2 x DDR3-1066 DIMM
Memory capacity	Up to 4GB
Expansion	PCI Express x16 (single-lane) mini-PCI Express (occupied by WiFi card) mSATA
SATA	2 SATA 3.0 Gb/s mSATA (shared with one SATA port)
Display outputs	Dual-link DVI, HDMI & DisplayPort
WiFi	802.11n & Bluetooth 3.0
Ethernet	10/100/1000Mbps
USB	2 USB 3.0 ports (back panel) 6 USB 2.0 ports (4 on back panel, 2 via pin headers)
Audio	8-channel high-definition audio HDMI audio output (lossless bit stream ready)
DirectX® support	DirectX® 11
Other hardware features	NVIDIA® CUDA technology, NVIDIA® PureVideo™ HD, hardware-accelerated Blu-ray playback
Windows® 7 capability	Certified for Windows® 7 premium®

 

Source: Zotac – Press Release – Product Sheet (pdf)

Be sure to check all of our CES coverage at The Digital Media Zone.

One of the higher profile products to be announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show has been the Simple.TV. It’s a device that works as a DVR for people who don’t want to pay for cable. For $150 you’ll get a device that will allow you to watch and record free over-the-air (or ClearQAM) content. Sounds great, right? Well, maybe not after you dig into all of the details. For starters, the device doesn’t have an HDMI port. In fact, it doesn’t have any sort of audio/video output port at all. Instead you attach the device to your home network via wired Ethernet. That’s right, there isn’t any built-in WiFi here either. Once on your network you can then view the live or recorded television shows on other streaming devices that you might own. When it launches in the spring they say that it will support Roku, Google TV, Boxee, and iPad. So how much storage does it have? None. Yep, a DVR that doesn’t even include a hard drive. You’ll have to supply your own and attach it via USB. Have you seen the cost of hard drives lately? If not, don’t go looking, you might have a heart attack at how much the prices have jumped up. Even just a nice 500 GB external drive is going to cost you about $85. Ok, so maybe you’ve got a spare hard drive laying around, and may you already have a Roku or Boxee box, at least you won’t have to pay a monthly fee, right? Nope! Well, technically, you don’t have to, but if you want to actually have an electronic program guide and the ability to schedule recordings, you’ll need to pay $4.99/month. Have we mentioned yet that it only has one tuner? So you can only record one show at a time, unless you want to buy two of these (and two hard drives). All of a sudden, this simple, cheap, DVR isn’t looking so simple or cheap!

So let’s recap the total costs on the Simple.TV DVR.

Let us offer up another idea. If this is something that interests you, do you already have a computer? You can buy TV tuner devices for that PC for far less money and use something like Windows Media Center for free. You won’t even need to pay for the guide data. It comes for free in Media Center. If the computer is standard desktop PC, you could get something like the Avermedia Duet. It’s an internal PCI Express card with two tuners, for $65. If you can’t go the internal card route, you could pick up a USB tuner, like the Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950Q. It’s a single tuner USB device for about $68. Or, even better, grab the SiliconDust HDHomeRun. It offers two tuners, and attaches to your network via Ethernet. It’s $99 and would allow you to watch and record TV on any PC in your house simply using your existing network! If the PC isn’t directly connected to your television that won’t be an issue either if you already own an Xbox 360. Microsoft’s gaming console naively works as a Windows Media Center Extender, giving you full access to all of your media, plus live and recorded TV if you connect (through your network) to a Windows PC.

At the end of the day, all of these options require a little bit of work on your part. While we hate to recommend, the simplest DVR is definitely the one that your cable company will give you for $10/month. If you’re not willing to pay for cable though, you’re going to need to spend some cash upfront, and put in a little work to get the same sort of features.

Be sure to check all of our CES coverage at The Digital Media Zone.

Source: Simple.TV

The device that Reycom showed off last year was called the REC 100, and that is the device that they spoke with us about today. The specs for the device haven’t changed much from last year, and for the most part, that’s not really a bad thing. It’s still built on an Intel Atom processor with NVidia graphics. It still sports dual-ATSC tuners, a 320 GB hard drive, DVDRW drive, and comes with an RF remote control. Because it’s a Windows Media Center at its heart, it also supports Windows Media Center Extenders, like the Xbox 360. A Bluray drive is not available yet, but they are planning to make that an available option later in the year. Their hope is that they will be able to lower manufacturing costs enough to be able to offer a Bluray-equipped unit at less than the current $599 price tag.

During our interview with Reycom they detailed some of the extras that the REC would be packing, and some of them are really exciting! They are planning to bundle in additional internet streaming video services including Youtube and Hulu. Maybe even more interestingly, the REC will function as a Play To device. This means that will it function as a DLNA receiver, allowing you to send content to it from other Windows devices to be displayed on the TV that is connected to the REC. They are also working on an application that would offer the ability to remote schedule recordings, and stream locally stored videos and recorded TV.

If you’re a hard-core HTPC enthusiasts this may not be the device for you, because it will be locked down as it’s intended to be more of a mainstream consumer device. You won’t be able to install software on it. That means you also won’t be able to install device drivers onto it, perhaps for USB TV tuners. While it won’t offer the customization options of a home-built HTPC, it looks to be a solid turn-key solution for people just looking for something better than what they have now. It’s unfortunate that it’s only launching with ATSC over-the-air tuners, but they told us that they are talking with TV tuner manufacturers to pre-install their device drivers. That would enable customers to attach external CableCARD tuners.

Reycom has partnered with LeoNovus to distribute the device in the United States. They’ve already begun taking pre-orders for the $599 device, and they told us they expect to begin shipping units by the end of this month. Eventually they look to make the REC available in big box stores and other online retailers, such as Amazon.

Update (Jan 10, 11pm) We’ve now included our full audio interview. Stream it below, or download the mp3 here.

Source: Reycom Press Release

Be sure to check all of our CES coverage at The Digital Media Zone.

Today, at the Consumer Electronics Show, Ceton is inviting the press to their suite to show off what they’ve been working on, and it should excite a lot of people in the Windows Media Center community! First up, they’ve decided to produce their own Windows Media Center Extender! For the last couple of years the Microsoft Xbox 360 has been the only option available to extend the full Media Center experience around your house, but the Xbox wasn’t always the perfect fit for everyone. While Microsoft has gone a long way toward making the Xbox a much better media consumption device, mainly by adding built-in Wireless N and making it almost completely silent, some people still just don’t want a gaming console. Ceton must have also decided that one way to ensure sales of their InfiniTV CableCARD tuners continued, was to help expand the Media Center community by giving consumers more options for spreading Media Center throughout their entire house.

If you haven’t already built your own home theater PC then Ceton’s other “technology preview” might be right up your alley! Ceton has been prototyping the development of their own set-top-box built upon Windows Embedded Standard 7 and, of course, an InfiniTV CableCARD tuner.

Hardware isn’t the only thing Ceton produces though. They’ve been hard at work on software enhancements to Media Center also. Feeling quite dissatisfied with the current online video streaming services offered in Media Center, Ceton is working on their own online media streaming hub plugin. It would offer the user the ability to search for the content they want across multiple providers, all from one interface. No longer would you need to open separate apps, or surf to different websites to find the content you’re looking for. It would all be available from one central app, right within Windows Media Center! They also have companion apps for tablets and mobile devices, including Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8.

All of these products, the Windows Media Center Extender, set-top-box and software enhancements, are being considered by Ceton as technology previews. As such, they weren’t willing to give any potential release dates or pricing information.

This is a developing story, so check back later for pictures and more details.

Be sure to check all of our CES coverage at The Digital Media Zone.

Most of the exhibitors present were smaller names, but some big guys, like LG and OnStar were there, too. Lenovo had a very large presence, showing off their new ultrabook lineup.

Here are some of the products that caught our attention. Some good, some bad…some relevant to home and mobile media technology and some not.

Paired with a Mac Mini, Newer Technologies miniStack MAX could power an awesome HTPC

Other Word Computing—often most known for Mac and PC mod components and accessories—was showing off the miniStack MAX, a storage and connections interface with a footprint designed to match the new Mac Mini. Coming later this quarter, it includes a slot optical drive, SD card reader, and storage enclosure that, combined with the Mac Mini, makes for a great home theater PC. Unfortunately, they’re not talking about Blu-ray yet.

RCA was showing a wifi-enabled sound bar that adds connected video services like Netflix to any television. The device will reportedly retail for under $200, and it will be available later this year.

Marvell's reference design for an ARM-based Google TV set top box

Marvell was showing a reference design for an ARM-based Google TV set top box, but they were unable to discuss news about specific partners who might be bringing products to market.

Nest Labs was showing the Nest thermostat. It’s as slick and beautiful as we imagined. We learned after including the Nest thermostat in our holiday gift guide that they were sold out of product! But they assured us that they’re filling back orders as quickly as possible, and they expect to have more available in the next few months. In the meantime, if you live near one of the new Best Buy prototype stores, you could be lucky enough to find one on the store shelf!

Lenovowas proudly showing the sleek angles and colors of its new IdeaPad and ThinkPad ultrabook lines. Think you know what a ThinkPad looks like? Think again. This is not your father’s ThinkPad. Lenovo also showed the Atom-based IdeaCenter Q180 HTPC (now available with Blu-ray add-on) and a 14″ USB-powered external LCD display.

The Powerbag battery is small and light

If you carry a bunch of devices around, and you worry about keeping them charged throughout the day or trip, you’ll love the new line of chargers from Powerbag and myCharge. The new battery pack for the Powerbag line carries 3000mAh, is small enough to get through security without any problems, and charges up to four devices simultaneously. We could use one of these!

Belkin was showing a hardware prototype for its previously-announced Thunderbolt dock, which allows thunderbolt-enabled laptops to connect all desktop peripherals with just one cable. Due out later this year, Belkin expects to price this product at $299—which is probably about $130 too expensive.

GreenWave Reality demonstrated a home energy management and automation system that included power strips, plug-in modules, smart bulbs [think Android but not Android], and control software for web and mobile devices. The system is still in testing for the United States.

Griffin's Twenty literally puts your Airport Express on a pedestal

Griffin Technology exhibited a hardware prototype for the Twenty audio amplifier that mounts an Airport Express wall wart next to a big volume knob to turn any pair of old speakers into an AirPlay audio zone. Great idea—weird, ugly execution.

The writers over at Kotaku dug up a very interesting patent that was filed by Microsoft in 2007, and finally granted by the USPTO on December 27th, 2011. This patent, number 8,083,593, describes a way to include DVR functionality into Microsoft’s gaming console, the Xbox. From the patent request:

An integrated gaming and media experience is disclosed, including recording of content on a gaming console. A digital video recorder (DVR) application running alongside a television client component allows users to record media content on the gaming console. The DVR application also integrates itself with the console menu. Once integrated, users can record media content while playing games. Alternatively, users can record content when the gaming console is turned off. The recorded content can include television programming, gaming experience (whether local or online), music, DVDs, and so on. When in the recording state, users can also switch between various other media modes, whether gaming, television, and so on.

The idea that the Xbox sholud include tuners and operate as a DVR is one that has been kicked around by the Windows Media Center community for years. It makes a lot of sense. Microsoft has been trying to win the living room for over a decade, and while Media Center used to be the Redmond company’s main weapon in that battle, it has clearly leaned on the Xbox 360 to take the fight to the next level. You can’t blame them for the shift either. Despite the fact that Windows Media Center has around 6 million people using it as a DVR, the Xbox 360 is already in 57 million living rooms.

This patent doesn’t just suggest the ability to watch and record television on the gaming console though, it also adds another key feature. If Microsoft were to implement this patent in their next console it would also enable gamers to record their gaming session. No longer would they need to buy stand-alone video capture devices, such as the Hauppauge HD-PVR to record their latest Modern Warfare frag-fest.

If Microsoft is able to pull this idea off, especially if it uses CableCARD tuners (here’s looking at you Ceton), they may finally have the one box solution to occupy the holy input 1  position on millions of televisions!

Souce: US Patent and Trademark Office via Kotaku

Update 4:46pm ET: Microsoft has commented on this Connect article (same issue, but different post) the following:

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. This has been escalated to our data providers.

That’s an interesting comment from Microsoft though as Zap2It’s, which is Microsoft’s guide data provider, website shows guide data through January 2nd.

Update 12/23/2011: It appears as though Microsoft and Zap2It have figured out the issue. Guide data has returned! Just as it has always worked, you won’t need to do anything to update your guide listings. The listings will be downloaded automatically for you, if they haven’t been already. If you haven’t received updated listings yet you can manually force an update. From the Media Center home screen go to Tasks > Settings > TV > Guide > Get Latests Guide Listings.

Source: Microsoft Connect

TotalMedia Theater prompts you to choose a player every time you insert a DVD

Credit goes to Entertainment 2.0 listener Mike for getting us to dust off this old hack and adapting it to the latest version of TotalMedia Theater. To eliminate the prompt screen and always use Media Center to play DVDs and TotalMedia Theatre to play Blu-ray and HD DVD media, you’ll need to use the Registry editor, regedit.exe. If contemplating that raises your blood pressure, you may want to just put up with the prompt. If, however, you feel plenty comfortable mucking around in your registry, then follow these directions. But remember: you can seriously screw up your system if you don’t know what you’re doing here. Tread cautiously. As with any system update, it’s a good idea to create a restore point before making changes like this.

First, find and delete the following registry branch:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\AutoPlayHandlers\Handlers\ArcSoftTotalMediaTheatre

Then find and delete the ArcSoftTotalMediaTheatre key in the following branch:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\AutoPlayHandlers\EventHandlers\PlayDVDMovieOnArrival

After making these changes, Media Center will no longer prompt you to select a player for DVDs—it will just play them the way it always did.

The holidays are quickly approaching, and if you’re anything like the writers at the DMZ, you probably have barely started your holiday gift buying, if at all. Never fear though! We’re here to give you lots of ideas, at least for the geeks on your list. We’ve even broken down our buying suggestions into the different types of geeks for whom you may be shopping for this year. Products are constantly going on sale, so use the prices we’re listing as a rough guide, and if you find any great deals please let us know in the comments.

	Ceton InfiniTV 4 CableCARD Tuner $299 (Review) What can we say about the InfiniTV 4 that we haven’t already? Ceton’s pair of CableCARD TV tuners have been solid performers and offer a great value when looking at the cost on a per-tuner basis.
	Logitech Harmony One Universal Remote $139.99 Every geek is looking for the one remote to rule them all! Logitech’s Harmony line of universal remotes have long been considered the gold standard for controlling all of the gadgets in your living room!
	ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 5 Blu-ray Software $99.99 Home theater PC geeks love 1080p video, and Blu-ray discs are still the best way to get it! ArcSoft’s TotalMedia Theatre 5 provides one of the nicest, and most feature-rich Blu-ray experiences available.
	Netflix Streaming Service from $7.99 There’s hardly a device out there that can’t stream Netflix movies and TV shows, so why not give your favorite content junkie Netflix’ unlimited streaming service? Even if they’re already a Netflix customer, your gift will count as credit toward their existing service.
	Samsung 12x BD-ROM/16x DVD Writer Drive $66.99 You’ll need a Blu-ray drive if you’re going to start watching Blu-ray discs on your home theater PC. A BD/DVD Writer combo drive gives you the ability to make it the only drive your computer will need to as this option can also burn DVDs.
	Xbox 360 4GB $187.95 The Xbox 360 is the perfect companion to a Windows Media Center home theater PC as it will function as a Windows Media Center Extender. This will give you access to live and recorded TV at a second television, and access to all of the rest of your media. It even has built in wireless networking support and works with standard Media Center remote controls.
	Silverstone Milo Series ML03B Home Theater PC Case $59.99 On the search for an excellent small htpc case that will fit your Micro-ATX motherboard? Well, your search is over as silverstone has a great package for you. Slim, sexy, and plenty of room for expansion. This case is great for the entry to mid level HTPC builder.
	Panasonic VIERA TC-P65VT30 65-inch 1080p 3D Plasma HDTV $2,799.95 If you want to make this the best year ever for the person at the top of your shopping list you can’t go wrong with the current king of HDTVs: the Panasonic 65″ VT30 Plasma! If top of the line isn’t exactly what you’re looking then check out the ST30 series, perhaps the Panasonic TC-P50ST30 50-Inch

	HTC Titan $99.99 We’re HUGE fans of Windows Phone at the DMZ and the HTC Titan is the BIGGEST (at 4.7″) one available. If you’re looking for something a little smaller check out the Samsung Focus S 4G for $19.99.
	Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 $99.99 With the Xbox showing up in multiple sections of our gift guide, we decided to put the Kinect into the gadgets category because it works with games, and it provides a new interface for using the Xbox as a media console.
	Roku 2 XD Streaming Player 1080 $79.00 If the geek on your shopping list hasn’t built an HTPC (yet) then the Roku box may be just what they need to get their streaming media fix. With big-screen access to their Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Pandora, NHL and many other video service accounts, they’ll have a never-ending stream of content to keep them occupied. The Roku also makes a great second room device, and it works great over wireless in your home, so there’s no need to run new cabling. If you’re buying for an Apple geek, consider the Apple TV instead.
	Jawbone JAMBOX Bluetooth Speaker $169.99 Your geek may seem to have everything, but do they have an amazing Bluetooth speaker? Probably not. This speaker from Jawbone will allow them to listen to music or movies from their smartphone or tablet on a beautiful and stylish portable speaker! It also makes a great speakerphone for conference calls.
	Beats by Dr. Dre Solo HD $229.95 (Review) Need to listen to your movies or music in a more private environment? The Beats Solo HD on-ear headphones are among the more popular choices, judging from how many of them you might see around town. These monsters feature amazing sound; can control your iPhone, iPod, or iPad; include a mic for phone and chat conversations; and fold for easier packing.
	Kindle Fire $199.99 Amazon’s entrance into the tablet market was huge this year! If you’re looking for a 7″ tablet that can run Android apps, and you’re already tied to Amazon’s Kindle or Prime ecosystems then the Kindle Fire makes a great media consumption tablet. It also has a Netflix app if you prefer that over Amazon Prime Instant Video.
	Nest Thermostat $249 I know what you’re thinking: “Really? A thermostat?” Trust me! This is the coolest thermostat you’ve ever seen! It’s described as a learning thermostat. It learns your schedule and can automatically adjust itself to turn down the heat when you’re not around. Seriously, just go check it out!

	Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Episodes I-VI) [Blu-ray] $97.99 What many consider to be the greatest set of sci-fi movies ever created, Star Wars, has finally come to Blu-ray! Grab all six episodes packed with tons of bonus features, or you can snag Episodes I-III or Episodes IV-VI has stand-alone sets.
	Tron: Legacy / Tron: The Original Classic (Five-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy) $54.99 Not only are Tron and Tron Legacy great movies, but they look beautiful on Blu-ray. This is a great collection that has 3D, 2D, Digital Copy, and the original Tron on Blu-ray It’s a simply fantastic collection!
	Harry Potter: The Complete 8 Film Collection [Blu-ray] $79.99 Is there anything that even needs to be said about Harry Potter? It’s all 8 movies, on Blu-ray, in one box set, for a reasonable price.
	The Nightmare Before Christmas (Three-Disc Combo: Blu-ray 3D / Blu-ray / DVD / Digital Copy) $35.49 Tim Burton’s amazing Christmas masterpiece in 3D! Need we say more?

	Xbox Live Gold – 12 Month Membership $49.96 If you’re going to be gaming on Xbox, then an Xbox Live subscription is almost mandatory. With it you’ll be able to play mutliplayer games online, watch Netflix and ESPN3 (if you already subscribe to those services) plus lots of other features!
	Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim $59.99 Skyrim has received top-notch reviews all across the gaming community, and is destined to win many Game of the Year awards! This one is a no-brainer for any fan of role playing games!
	Forza Motorsport 4 $51.99 If the gamer in your life isn’t in to role playing games, and craves a lot more speed, then Forza 4 is the gift for them. This franchise just continues to improve, and the fourth installment is no exception!
	Xbox 360 250GB Holiday Bundle $299.99 THE gaming system of this generation to own is without a doubt the Xbox 360! With great games, great online features through Xbox Live, and amazing accessories like the Kinect you simply can’t go wrong! Plus, as noted above, it can also be used a Windows Media Center Extender!
	Fanatec Forza Motorsport CSR Wheel $249.95 If racing simulations, like Forza Motorsport 4 are your favorite games then you can’t go wrong buying a fantastic steering wheel. Fanatec makes some of the best sim racing products on the planet, and their new Forza Motorsport CSR wheel brings that quality to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and the PC! It doesn’t come with pedals though, so pick up either the Clubsport Pedals ($199) or CSR Elite Pedals ($149) to match with the wheel for the ultimate racing experience.
	Nintendo 3DS $169.99 (Review) The Xbox 360 isn’t the only hot gaming item this winter. The Nintendo 3DS has picked up steam after a rough start and is now selling faster than the original DS did. There are a slew of great games for the system including great downloadable games on the Nintendo eShop. With features like 3D, Street Pass, Online play, and so much more this is the ultimate gift for any gamer geek.
	Super Mario 3D Land $39.99 The fastest selling Mario game ever… yep! In 3D…yep! Amazing…yep! If you are picking up a 3DS for a loved one this winter if they need a new game this is a must buy.
	The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword $49.99 We can not leave out the Wii this year, as a brand new Legend of Zelda has just come out. With extremely high 93 score on metacritic and some saying the best Zelda ever created this is a must own for any gamer.

2011 has been a great year for CableCARD tuners. We’ve seen Ceton slash the price of their quad-tuner InfiniTV 4, and expand  their offerings to an external USB tuner. SiliconDust and Hauppauge also released devices of their own. While the new products have helped to bring the costs down, it has also made picking the right option a little more complicated. To help we’ve put together the following to help you make the best decision for your CableCARD equipped home theater PC. All of these tuners will give your home theater PC access to every channel your cable provider offers! If your provider uses Switched Digital Video these tuners will all support that too. While our comparison chart displays the MSRP, you can see from the Amazon prices below that most of these devices are now selling below their list price, making this an ever better time to grab one!

Ceton InfiniTV 4 PCIe (Review)The InfiniTV 4 was the first multi-tuner CableCARD tuner on the market, and because of that it is regarded as the most stable option. Ceton’s tuners offer rock-solid performance. While this card is an internal expansion card, they now offer software that enables the tuners to be shared across the network with other computers.

Ceton InfiniTV 4 USB (Review)The InfiniTV 4 USB was released this year, and it offers all of the same reliability and features of its PCIe cousin. This device is a great option for small-form-factor (SFF) PCs that don’t have an internal expansion slot. It can also share its tuners across the network utilizing a Windows Media Center plugin like the PCIe version.

SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime (3) (Announcement)SiliconDust earned a great reputation with their original HDHomeRun. This year they released their first CableCARD tuner. This is a 3-tuner version that, like the original HDHomeRun, connects to PCs through the network by plugging an Ethernet cable into the device.

SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime (6) (Announcement)The 6-tuner HDHomeRun Prime is essentially two of teh 3-tuner model in one case. Unfortunately that means that you’ll need two CableCARDs, two Ethernet cables, two coax cables, and two separate Switched Digital Video tuning adapters (if required by your cable provider).

Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-2650 (Review)Hauppauge is another company that has been selling TV tuners forever, but the initial release of their CableCARD tuner didn’t offer the same features and reliability of the company’s previous offerings. There have been multiple firmware/driver releases since it’s original release though, so it’s reliability should be improved. It does have the advantage of being the cheapest option available.