Welcome to the Home Automation Archives

The Harmony Advanced Universal Remote for Xbox 360 makes gaming easy. Simply choose “Play Xbox 360″ and the Harmony will automatically power on your TV, Xbox 360 and stereo receiver, then set all the inputs, and even press “Play”! Logitech’s patented Smart State Technology® gives you one-touch control over your console.

And like all Logitech [...]

mavromatic writes “I’m shocked that Parasound would release a highend “Universal” DVD player so close to the launch of the much anticipated High Definition DVD players. Maybe that’s why they are calling this the NewClassic DVD Player.

Priced at $1500, this is aimed for the highend market, or for the folks that swear by Parasound AMPs [...]

dlmag writes “Podmaxx, the latest in a growing list of 3rd party utilities for managing the ipod on the PC, deftly offers ease and feature-sets that rival or exceed those of it’s competitors.

The key features of Podmaxx are the ability to sync with the outlook mailbox, contacts, notes and tasks, as well as pull [...]

cnet writes “On paper, Philips’s new DVR-DVD recorder looks like the ideal combination. Boasting a 120GB hard drive, the slick-looking HDRW720 pauses and rewinds live video and archives your shows to DVD+R/+RW.

Unfortunately, the deck comes saddled with some crippling limitations, including an electronic programming guide (EPG) that won’t work with digital cable or satellite receivers, [...]

cnet writes ” Back in 2001, Yamaha stumbled with the CDR-HD1000, its first component CD player capable of storing music on a built-in hard drive. The company’s latest offering, the MusicCast Server MCX-1000, is light-years ahead of its predecessor. Featuring a built-in 80GB hard drive, the Yamaha MCX-1000 functions not only as a CD player/recorder/ripper [...]

cnet writes “JVC’s intriguing VCR/DVD combo recorder comes loaded with promise on paper and riddled with annoying quirks in person. The DR-MV1S ($500 list, $300 or less online) is the first deck of its kind with dual tuners for recording two shows at once but not if you use a cable or satellite box. It [...]

Bob writes “When we started the Home Technology Demonstration Project one of the first systems that we wanted to work with was Multi Room Audio. In the last year or so this product group has dominated the flow of new products and with good reason … they are a terrific addition to a home. There [...]

CNET writes ” Back in the early days of high-resolution audio, most SACD and DVD-Audio players hovered around the $1,000 price mark. Pioneer’s price range was right up there, but a few years later, that brand pioneered the price-slashing movement–it was first to break the $200 barrier with the DV-563A, which was updated last year [...]

Ross writes “Harman/Kardon’s fine AVR 630 receiver was still in my equipment rack when the mother of all HK receivers, the AVR 7300, arrived at my door. At $2,399 list price, the AVR 7300 costs considerably less than competitors’ top-of-the-line offerings, but it was still nearly twice the price of the AVR 630 (now replaced [...]

CNET writes “Pioneer gets just about everything right with the DVR-533H-S. Despite being no larger than most DVD players, this sleek hard drive/DVD recorder ($499 list) has a feature set longer than the marquee at a 24-screen megaplex. The main attraction is a premiere for the category: dual-layer compatibility, which allows the deck to record [...]

cnet writes “Think a home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) system is the only way to get affordable home theater? Think again. Onkyo’s TX-SR503 delivers a full-service A/V receiver with more features, superior connection options, and better sound quality than you’ll find in most HTIBs. Yes, more money buys more power and more extensive connectivity options as well as [...]

Jonathan writes “I’ve been thinking about the iPod 5G and the video capability in iTunes and the ITMS and considering the success announced this week believe that it’s quite possible for things to accelerate much more rapidly towards a new network model.
If you think about the manner in which you subscribe to a podcast and [...]