So says Merrill Lynch analysts who follow the market closely. ThinkSecret.com has all the details, but here’s the important graf on video:
Milunovich dismisses the notion that a video iPod may follow after a photo iPod, echoing previous sentiments from Apple executives. “In our discussions with management about usage patterns, it is clear that a Video iPod (for playing movies) gets the thumbs down,” he writes. Apple simply doesn’t see a strong a device that would require users to view a movie on a small screen for an extended period of time.
Something tells me this isn’t a dead issue yet. If other vendors are successful, look for a change of heart. It’s probably prudent to let other companies prove the market and see what develops.
It looks like the Hauppauge PVR350 might be lowering it’s price from $199 to $149, at least on the Hauppauge online webstore. The store webpage currently has this comment next to the PVR350:
New! Lower price: $149.-
Unfortunately, if you select the “Add to Shopping Cart” button, it still has the price at $199, so you might want to wait until the dust settles if that deal floats your boat. Alternatively, you can buy a PVR350 and receive a free MediaMVP, which is a good deal as well.
The interesting aspect of the PVR350 is that it not only encodes MPEG2 streams as they are captured, but it also has a TV-out which will decode it on the fly as the well, greatly reducing the CPU needs and letting you use an older, less powerful computer.
Thanks for the tip, reader CT!
Additional Info:
TVHarmony Product Tracker: Hauppauge WinTV PVR 350
(Hat Tip: Reader CT)
Not to let Hauppauge be alone in the sub-$100 MPEG2 TV capture card market with the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 150MCE, Avermedia introduced the UltraTV 1500 MCE TV capture card with an MSRP of $79.99.
These are great days for consumers.
I’ve always been interested in video projector technology ever since a friend of mine turned his driveway into a drive-in movie for a summer dinner party. Since the price is coming down on these things as fast on these things, having your own home theater is now in reach people who earn less than Bill Gates.
Tom’s hardware has a good primer for selecting a video projector. I’ll paraphrase the advantages and disadvantages of the technologies but it’s well worth reading the whole article if you are technically inclined.
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Even though a friend purchased a Hauppauge 150MCE card last weekend online, Hauppauge officially announced 5 new capture cards today in conjunction with Microsoft Media Center Edition 2005.
The products are:
Out of the bunch, I think the 150MCE is the big winner. At $70, it’s going to make products like SnapStream’s Medusa a lot more affordable.
In the “for what it is worth” column, I found this online retailer (note: I’ve never used them so I can’t vouch for them) selling the PVR 150 MCE for $69. It’s the first time I’ve seen this item for sale anywhere, although I haven’t been looking too hard.
According to Hauppauge.com, this unit will not only work with MCE but Windows XP as well. Once it gets better support from PVR software vendors, I think a $70 tuner card with MPEG decoding is going to be a big hit (although for Hauppauge, it will likely cannabalize their PVR 250 sales).
Since my wife just loves it when I cut holes in our drywall, Mavromatic.com points out this handy device that makes my dining room dimmer switch just plain boring in comparison.
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If you are trying to build a silent HTPC for your living room, power consumption is a major concern. Power consumption equals heat and heat equals noisy fans, so the lower the power usage, the quieter your system can become.
TechReport.com did some testing on high-powered CPUs like the Athlon 64 (90nm) and the Pentium 4 3.4Ghz (90nm).
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I had previously mentioned my excitement about the new Portable Playstation not only to re-live my youth via emulated Galaga, but as an inexpensive device to watch video. According to Joystiq, it looks like we’ll have to wait a little longer given the problems they are experiencing with battery life.
(Hat Tip: Engadget)
BYOPVR.com points out some interesting rumors about a low cost Hauppauge PVR 250, a video capture card with MPEG2 encoding. The Hauppauge PVR 250 is the conventional choice for building your own PVR since most Windows and Linux PVR software support it and the MPEG2 encoding takes a lot of processing off of the CPU. The 150 will be a lower cost version of the 250.
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