Microsoft Ponies Up for $10K Media Center Giveaway

Are your home videos trapped on your PC? Are your digital photos prisoner to My Pictures? Do you feel digitally disconnected?

Then Microsoft wants you.

The company is sponsoring a digital home makeover contest that will reward a digitally dysfunctional household with $10,000 worth of digital gear.  The prize package sports a new Windows Media Center PC, Media Center extenders, a flat-screen TV and supporting video-capable wireless home networking devices.

Got That Spreadsheet for Me?

Don't be surprised if it's not Excel your co-workers are watching on their PCs over the next few days. A survey conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association and the Sports Video Group shows that 38 percent of sports fans expect to download and watch a game--at no cost--over the next few years. That's up 10 percent from last year.

This year's NCAA March Madness, which began today, would be a good time to start. CBSSports.com is showing all 63 games for free on NCAA March Madness On Demand. The 640 x 360 widescreen video viewer is hardly high-def viewing at its best--even jerky at times--but it's more than passable. It sure beats watching second-quarter sales projections.

 

Channeling Vinyl

Still have some old vinyl kicking around the attic that you'd like to offload to the iPod? You've got a few options for converting those soundwaves into bits.

Numark, maker of turntables for pro DJs and consumers, will ship a direct-to-iPod turntable next month that converts vinyl tracks to MP3 files--without a PC in between. The option works with iPod Classic and 5th-gen iPods as well as 2nd and 3rd-gen Nanos. Owners of other iPod models can import music from records into iTunes and then burn CDs or sync with an iPod from there. Bundled EZ Vinyl Converter 2 software for the PC and EZ Audio Converter software for the Mac remove pops and hisses from original recordings during transfer. Gracenote MusicID technology analyzes vinyl content and retrieves artist, song and album info.

$50 for Your Trouble

Claiming to share consumers' frustrations that they were asked to make a choice in a format war, Best Buy is placating HD DVD player customers who bought players or before  Feb. 23 fire sale prices with a $50 gift certificate. Best Buy will send out certificates to customers it identifies as having purchased an HD DVD player "or attachment."

 

You Tube, TiVo?

In the ongoing battle to lure consumers away from their PCs, TiVo has become the latest consumer electronics company to announce plans to bring Internet-based video content into the living room. TiVo will join Apple TV as the other hardware box shoveling coveted YouTube content to TV's when the service launches later this year. TiVo users will be able to search and browse videos and log into their YouTube accounts to access playlists via the TiVo menu.

Only TiVo owners with Series3 TiVo HD units connected via broadband to the Internet will have access to YouTube content.

Hey Mister, Wanna Rent a DVD?

If it seems lately that some of your jumpy Netflix discs have been around the block a few times, maybe they have.

Newsweek reports this week that video stores, and even public libraries, are gobbling up subscriptions to the online DVD retailer, and then renting out the discs to their own clientele. One Massachusetts video store owner pops hard-to-find Netflix titles into blank cases and sends them out with customers at a clip of 15 titles a month--saving the store two grand a month in inventory costs.

 

Drive Time Goes Up, So Does Spending on Car Electronics

If you're like most Americans, you spend 17 hours a week in your vehicle. That's a lot of time behind the wheel, which is why 38 percent of the driving population is planning to buy and install a CE device in their ride this year.

It's not what you think. What's surprising about those numbers, compiled by the Consumer Electronics Association, is that it's no longer car audio or video that's leading the drive to aftermarket mobile electronics sales. The most sought-after product for 2008, according to the CEA survey, is a remote car starter of all things. Fifteen percent of respondents said they planned to buy a remote starter in the next 12 months, followed by in-dash navigation systems at 13 percent. Car alarms came in third at 12 percent.

More Blu-ray on the Way

Now that it's a Blu-ray world in high-definition video discs, expect to see a lot more product available on both the hardware and content sides. That gives you a wide range of options when it comes to allocating your bucks.

Amazon reports that the top three selling Blu-ray players fall in the $350-$750 range. The current sales leaders are the Sony BDP-S300 ($379), followed by the Samsung BD-P1400 at $356 and then the Panasonic DMP-BD30K at $749.

Sony Ushers in New Era of Blu-ray

Sony gave the press and dealers a peek into the interactive features of next-gen Blu-ray Disc players this week at its Open House in Las Vegas.

Don Eklund, executive vp of advanced technologies for Sony Pictures, was on hand to wax on the possibilities of Bonus View (Profile 1.1). The picture-in-picture function included on select Blu-ray Discs is playable on compatible machines packing dual audio and video decoders. The demo featured commentary by actress Milla Jojovich on Resident Evil: Distinction, showing how users can switch between the audio of the movie and the commentary of the inset without leaving the movie.

 

Sony Readies Budget Multi-room Audio System

Sony demoed its latest distributed audio solution at its 2008 Open House this week in Las Vegas. The affordable design brings multi-room capability to those on a budget, incorporating wireless RF transmission operating in the 2.4-GHz band.

The S-AIR design also promises idiotproof setup. Users plug the transmitter end of the system into one outlet and the Air Station receiver into an outlet in another room. They recognize each other and begin communicating without the need for complicated user setup.

The 2.4-GHz space is crowded territory occupied by cell phones, microwave ovens, remote controls and Wi-Fi networks, but Sony claims it has solved potential interference issues. Marketing exec Aaron Levine told journalists the 2.4-GHz RF solution was a cost decision made to reach a mainstream price point.

The S-AIR technology is built into four Bravia Theatre systems starting with the $300 DAV-HDX275, which becomes the main controller for a multi-room system with the addition of an optional kit.