VBOX Cat's Eye DTA-164e - This sexy little PCI Express tuner can handle 2 HD ATSC or analog NTSC signals at the same time, allowing you record two channels at once, or record one while watching another. This guy is expected to hit the streets in a couple of weeks, and should go for about $199. If you're looking for a cheaper HDTV tuner, check out the AverMedia AverTV HD MCE A180. You can pick it up for around $70. - An HDTV set - What use is an HD tuner without a good HDTV to watch it on? Hi-def sets are a hot item this year, and rather than jump in over my head and tell you to go with 1080p/1080i/720p, I'll just point out that there's a number of bargains around. Best Buy is offering 10% off all its HDTV sets this season, and the Philips Outlet store is offering $450 off selected plasma TVs.
- Archos 604 Portable Media Player - A lot of folks are going to be putting Slingbox on their list this year, but I tend to use Orb when I need to stream live or recorded TV over the internet. It's free, and it works great if you have a PC-based PVR. For long trips I prefer to load up my PDA with compressed TV recordings. But it would be nice to have a dedicated portable media player with a 30GB hard drive, and WiFi would be nice, so I'm going to put an Archos 604 on my list this year. You can probably pick one up for aroudn $400. If you value a larger hard drive, and could live without the Wifi, you might want to consider the 80GB 504, which will set you back around $350.
Mvix MX-760HD Wireless HD Media Center - While I don't have much need for a device to stream content across the internet, it would be nice to have a way to stream content from my office to the living room. The Mvix MX-760HD can stream HD video over an 802.11g network, and has pretty much every port you could need to connect it to a TV set. Available in early December for $329.
PVR Wire Gift Guide #1
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. That would be why it's so cheap. :) I'm updating the post to include the card I'd meant to list, the AverMedia AverTVHD MCE A180, which you can pick up for around $70.
Posted at 5:40PM on Dec 4th 2006 by Brad Linder
3. The AVerTV Purity 3D MCE 250 card linked is not an HDTV tuner, it is SDTV tuner...
Posted at 5:51PM on Dec 4th 2006 by TJ
4.
this mvix player is awefully COOL !
I have this ... and cant rave enough about it.
its wicked... sings on everything i throw at it.
and its video quality - it'l blow you away.
Posted at 7:19PM on Dec 4th 2006 by david chute
5. I was scanning the #4 press release for codec information, and only found this: "the MX-760HD is capable of storing and decoding dozens of digital media files and formats." Hopefully dozens includes ones that people actually care about, like xvid. Hopefully it will also not require a PC. I've been on the lookout for something to replace my Xbox/XBMC to do HD streaming so that I can playback 720p files, but everything I've seen thus far either requires a Windows PC or has terrible codec support. Hopefully this can fill the gap. I don't see why it should be so hard to make a device that can play 720p video over a network via something like Samba.
1. According to the Avermedia website and review, the tuner recommended that was on sale, AVerMedia AverTV Purity 3dMCE 250 is not an HDTV tuner. It's just a tv tuner, NTSC only.
Posted at 5:20PM on Dec 4th 2006 by Erick