Silverstone's Grandia GD04

Silvertone has just announced the availability of the new Grandia GD04.

The GD04 has a beautifully proportioned exterior and is shaped similarly to most receivers and the depth is a mere 323mm.

 

It can accommodate one 5.25” optical drive, two 3.5” hard drives, a 2.5” SSD, a standard ATX power supply, and two high-end graphics cards up to 10.5 inches.

Special Feature

Three silent 120mm fans included
Positive air pressure design for excellent cooling/quietness and dust-prevention
Thick 8.0mm aluminum front panel with premium styling
Incredible 323mm depth to fit comfortably inside home theater cabinet
Designed with cable routing for easy installation
Support power supply up to 180mm long
Support expansion cards up to 10.5 inches
Support 2.5” hard drive or SSD (Solid-state drive)

 (source: http://www.silverstonetek.com/products/p_contents.php?pno=GD04&area=)

Lenovo's IdeaCentre Q Series Mini PCs/nettops

 (source: http://shop.lenovo.com/)

Meet the Q Series from Lenovo! If you are tight on space and on a tight budget, why not consider a mini PC? There are 3 models on sale now on Lenovo's website, all are based on the same Atom-ION platform.

Q100. Basic mini PC
The size of a book and just right for email, internet, music and more. They're quiet and consume less energy than standard PCs.

Q110. Premium Full-HD mini PC
As tiny as Q100 with upgraded graphics, more storage and Full hi-def support. Pair with your HD TV for an affordable media PC.

Q700. Compact home theater
Designed to double as your PC, home theater and sound room in a décor-friendly tower about the size of a DVD player.

Genius LuxeMate 810 Wireless Input Device

(source: http://www.testseek.com/computers/input_devices/keyboards/genius_luxemate_810-p-05601034-bf13-796b-79bf-0d566527d5f0.html)

Genius LuxeMate 810 Media Cruiser is a 3-in-One wireless input device with integration of keyboard, mouse and remote control functions.

The combo set is specially designed for the Microsoft Media Center Edition, compatible with the OS Hotkey and provides full PC remote control function to TV, DVD, My Video, My Music and MSN. It utilises dual-way 2.4 GHz and that can work from a distance of up to 10 meters to ensure control and comfort to operate that make it perfect for your htpc system.

VIA VB8003 Mini-ITX

(source: http://www.slashgear.com/)

It is good to know that besides the popular Atom-Ion platform, we now have an alternative from VIA for the mini-itx 1080p solution, the VIA VB8003. 

The VIA VB8003 comes with a 1.6GHz VIA Nano processor coupled with the VIA VX800 media system processor and the S3 Graphics 435 ULP graphics processor offers stunningly smooth HD playback at resolutions of up to 2560 x 1600 pixels. The connectivity includes dual HDMI ports, a DVI port, a VGA port, dual gigabit ethernet, 4 USB 2.0, PS2 and serial ports, 2 SATA ports, an IDE connector and a CompactFlash slot.


VIA calls this new board as the "Ultimate Mini-ITX HD Multimedia Platform Combines DX10.1 and Dual HDMI through both Discrete and Integrated Graphics".

AMD ATI Radeon HD 5800 capable of bitstream Dolby True HD and DTS-HD

(source: http://www.amd.com/)

ATI's new HD5800 series is ALREADY on the consumer market. According to AMD, the ATI Radeon™ HD5800 Series graphics processors are the most technologically advanced and feature rich GPUs AMD has ever created. AMD releases two new cards so far, i.e. HD5850 and HD5870, both cards are equipped with UVD 2 video engine, independent video gamma controls, Blue-Stretch processing for effectively brighter whites in video, and dynamic video range support. 

But for the htpc users, most importantly the HD 5800 series now supports Dolby True HD and DTS-HD Master Audio besides the aged DD and DTS surround sound output with up to 8 channels of 192kHz / 24-bit audio. Hope the entry-level series, e.g. HD5300 (?) will be available soon then I can grab one.

Dell's New Full HD Widescreen Monitor Series

(source: http://www.dell.com/)

Dell has just added 3 new models to its Full HD Widescreen Home Monitor series, i.e. Dell ST2210 21.5", Dell ST2310 23" and ST2410 24". All the 3 models come with 1920x1080 Full HD panel with antiglare coating, 50,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 250cd/m² brightness level, DVI (HDCP), VGA, HDMI. and tilt-adjustability of 4° forward and 21° backward. The 3 models share exactly the smae specifications and they claim that they could deliver true cinematic-picture quality and enhanced movie watching, game playing and web surfing experence.

Although they are not led-backlit, the new series consume less energy as they only use 2 CCFL lamps as opposed to the 4 lamps used by the conventional LCD monitors. A good choice for the budget conscious users who are looking for a stylish monitor with high contract ratio for movies and games and still want to save up some electricity bills in the long run. 

Lenovo's A600 All-in-One IdeaCenter PC

(source: http://shop.lenovo.com/)

Lenovo's A600 is a 21.5-inch All-in-One PC combines the power of a traditional PC with the style and simplicity of a TV. Besides the low cost All-in-One PC solution offered by the Ion-Atom-based platform and DELL's Studio One 19 which is also based on the same mainstream Intel Core 2 Duo processor, the Lenovo A600 features a 21.5" Full HD (1920x1080) 16:9 widescreen,  Dolby® Home Theater™ surround sound plus a serious 2.1 speaker system with bass sub woofer and Microsoft Vista Media Center which allows you to watch, record and organize video and TV programs with an optional 4-in-1 remote. On top of it, it is also bundled with a slot-loading blu-ray drive enables you to enjoy HD movies and wireless keyboard and mouse to reduce cable clutter.

The Lenovo's A600 has a Full HD 1080p screen, but it is silent on whether it supports 'touchscreen' functionality or not. If you intended to link the A600 to your big screen TV in your living room, a touchscreen will be an added advantage as you could turn it into a multimedia control panel.

HP Pavilion MS200 All-in-One PC

(source: http://www.hardwaresphere.com/) 

All-in one PC is a new trend now and more PC manufactures join the party. HP has just added the HP Pavilion MS200 to their production line.  The MS200 All-in-One PC is powered by AMD Athlon X2 3250e-1.5Ghz Dual-Core Processor, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD, Ati graphics card, WiFi, DVD SuperMulti DL burner, 6-in-1 card reader and a 18.5-inch LCD.

Unlike the DELL's Studio One 19 Touchscreen PC and Asus Eee Top ET2002T, the MS200 uses AMD processor and does not have touchscreen functionality. And, it's bundled with wired keyboard and mouse to keep the price low. This is a stylish PC and surely it can easily blend into your living room without an issue. But on another hand, the lack of touchscreen functionality and wireless keyboard and mouse may make it not suitable for htpc in the living room.

Popcorn Hour C-200 - the ultimate digital media player

I said I would recommend some '2-in-1' NASs double as Media Players on my earlier post, but now I have found one that is better than that:  the Popcorn Hour C-200! It comes with a built-in LCD front panel, an internal hard disk, Gigabit Ethernet and optional Blu-ray capability.

Codec-wise it supports most of the popular codecs you could find on the internet. This is the most powerful alternative media player besides a proper htpc system or a high-end blu-ray player on the market so far. This is the one for serious users who prefer a simple all-in-one solution to a proper htpc system. This is not a portable media device like the Olevia's HD Media Player ZP-500 or Western Digital's WD TV which I mentioned in my previous post, instead it has everything you need for a standalone media player, you may use its internal hard drive to stream your video or just connect it to your NAS video library and sit back to enjoy your video out of the box. I only provide some ideas what this media player could do, actually it has far more features than you could imagine, for examples, download and stream content directly from YouTube, download utility without a PC, etc.. (source: http://www.popcornhour.com/)

BIG Shuriken CPU Cooler for silent htpc

Mini-itx cases are usually small and compact. Dealing with small chassis is always a challenge for htpc users as you have to find a balance between adequate ventilation and fan noise, sometimes you may not be able to have the best of both worlds. Here comes an alternative solution from Scyther.

Scythe's new BIG Shuriken CPU Cooler is a compact and silent cpu heatsink. It measures 58mm high and can perfectly fit in any small chassis. The Scythe Big Shuriken heatsink features 4 copper heatpipes, a 10mm thick 119x119mm square aluminum cooling fins and a 120mm PWM fan that spins at 900-1600 RPM. It is compatible with Intel's Socket 478, 775/1156/1366 and the entire AMD processor family. (source: http://www.scythe-eu.com/en/products/cpu-cooler/big-shuriken.html)

Olevia HD Media Player

(pic taken from http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/ )

Portable Media Players are getting more popular nowadays, the Olevia HD Media Player ZP-500 is another similar product after the Western Digital WD TV to the media player market.

Just like the WD TV, the ZP-500 only measures 101x146x30 mm which is about the same size as the WD TV's 100mm x 125.5 x 40mm, it is able to playback 1080p video clips on your LCD TVs or PC monitors. Due to its small size it does not come with an internal hard disk, that means you need to connect it to a portable USB flash drive or hard disk for content.

Codec-wise it supports MPEG1 (DAT/MPG/MPEG), NPEG2 (MPG/MPEG/VOB/ISO/IFO/TS/TP), MPEG4 (MP4/AVI/MOV), DivX 3/4/5/6, Xvid (AVI/MKV), h.264 AVC (TS/AVI/MKV/MOV), VC1 (TS/AVI/MKV/WMV), WMV9 (WMV), Real Video 8/9/10 (RM/RMVB), FLV (FLV) and almost all the common codecs you could find on the internet.

This is a portable media device to complement your existing AV setup, you can use it to get access to your video library on your PC or NAS via the Ethernet. In short, it has all the WD TV's features plus Network function and supports even more file formats.

However, the shortfall of this kinda media player is the lack of internal storage for content, I would recommend some NAS doubles as media player in my future articles. (source: http://www.olevia.com.hk/)

HP Mini 311-1011TU Notebook PC - a portable media player

Upcoming HP Mini 311-1011TU Notebook PC is based on the popular ION platform. It features a 11.6” Diagonal HD LED BrightView Widescreen Display with a resolution of 1366x768 which makes it a good choice for a portable media player. HD-playback-wise, it is powered by the Nvidia GF9400 graphics engine with PureVideo HD capble of MPEG-2, H.264 and VC-1 decoding. With the HDMI output (which normally only comes with high-end notebook), connecting to a LCD TV is no longer an issue. Other features include Intel Atom N280, 1GB DDR3, 160GB HD, 5-in-1 card reader, 802.11 B/G, bluetooth, Altec Lansing speakers and Windows Vista/XP pre-installed. 

You could use this netbook as a portable media player to complement your existing audio video system. It is a cost effective way to have a AV system which you could use it in your bedroom, living room or on the go. (source: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01868521&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN)

Hitachi's New Hard disk series

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies has just released its new line of CinemaStar hard drives, the new series is built on the 500GB/platter, boasting 7200RPM and ranging from 160GB to 1TB. The new drives are designed for multimedia solutions such as HD recording, editing and storage. With the new series released, Hitachi is in a better position to compete with Western Digital and Seagate who dominant the home pc mass storage market. It is believe Hitachi's entry will force its rivals to bring down the price of TB-based hard disks. We should see more competitively priced giant TB hard disks on the market soon.  (source: http://www.hitachigst.com/)

Optoma HD20 - low cost 1080p projector solution

(pic taken from http://www.pcmag.com/)

This is the first projector I write on my blog - the Optoma HD20 - because this is the only 1080p projector priced at US$999 I could find on the market. This new gadget definitely removes the high cost barrier of 1080p projectors and brings them to a more affordable level for most average users.

First impression, it's small. Measures only 324×234×97mm about half the size of its 1080p counterparts. This is the one meant for casual home cinema use and if you are used to high end models, the HD20 may not be the one you are looking for. Good choice for those who want to enter the 1080p field, but I would wait for a while for more options from its rivals.

DELL's Studio One 19 Touchscreen PC

(source: http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/desktop-studio-one-19?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs)

I believe 'All-in-one' PCs with 'touchscreen' support will be getting more popular amongst htpc users when Win7 is available later this year. Currently touchscreen PCs based on the Intel-Atom platform, e.g. the MSI Wind Top AE1900 series are already on the market, but a better choice would be the ones use the Ion-Atom-based platform such as the Asus Eee Top ET2002T which are capable of HD playback.

'All-in-one' PCs with 'touchscreen' support is the simplest way to set up a Media PC in the living room. What you need is just link your PC to your big screen TV, preferably via a HDMI, then you can watch your video collection in your living room. You can use the touchscreen as a multimedia control panel.

Besides the low cost solution offered by the Ion-Atom-based platform, DELL offers an alternative. The DELL Studio One 19 features a built-in 18.5" display with multi-touch screen functionality on a choice of 4 color fabric trim options or Solid Pure White trim border which can easily blend into your living room. It comes with an Intel desktop-based processor and upgradeable to Quad-Core, and, the package is bundled with wireless keyboard, mouse and WiFi to reduce cable clutter.

Fujitsu's Esprimo Q1500

(source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/06/fujitsu-esprimo-q1500-core-2-duo-and-blu-ray-in-a-laughably-sma/)

If you want a powerful htpc system which comes with a mainstream Intel Core 2 Duo processor and Blu-ray drive, Fujitsu's new Esprimo Q 1500 may be what you are looking for. It is packed in a small chassis similar to those nettop PCs that use the Atom platform but with more power to do more jobs. The Esprimo Q 1500 also comes with 4GB of RAM, 320GB hard drive, 6 USB ports and will be available in September.

Akoya Mini E2076D world’s smallest Ion-based HTPC

Acer Aspire Revo has been the world's smallest Atom-ION platform but it will be replaced by the new Akoya Mini E2076D which only measures 173mm high  x 20mm thick. The Akoya is the product of Medion, a German company. According to the source, it will come with 2 GB Ram, 320GB hard drive and bundled with wireless mouse and keyboard. It will be available in September. Due to its ability of HD playback, you may consider this new gadget for your htpc setup. (source: http://www.sunrainet.com/)

Plasma TVs are not dead yet

Plasma TVs are famous with their big screen displays and excellent picture quality, but they also suffers from the high price tag and unfriendly high energy consumption. The market is relatively small if compared with the LCD. Most TV manufacturers opt for LCDs rather than Plasma, but not the LG.

(source: http://www.lge.com/us/tv-audio-video/televisions/index.jsp?countryCd=us)

LG's new PS60 and PS80 series may give you some thoughts about what Plasma TVs are about. My first impression about the new series is that Plasma TVs are not dead yet, there is still a market for plasma if the price and energy consumption factors are well taken care of. As a matter of fact, if you are looking for something bigger than 50', plasma is still much better than LCD.

eTop-ET2002T as Media PC control panel

(source: http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=DPWRF5hdLVP5bqsQ)

If I remember correctly few years back Microsoft actually included a Windows Media Center in the Windows OS for those who wanted to set up their media pc in the living room. The concept was link your pc to your big screen tv and watch your video collection on your tv. At that time, Microsoft advised that a small pc monitor was still needed as a 'control panel' side by side with your big screen tv. However, the concept was not really accepted by the average users as setting up such a system was quite challenging during that time and imagine those pieces of hardware scattered here and there, e.g. pc lcd monitor, cpu chassis, wired keyboard and mouse, cabling etc. And, 'touchscreen' was still considered as something luxury few years back, even MS did not support it.

But what if you have an 'all-in-one' pc with the touchscreen display, cpu and all the necessary components built into a small flat panel which you could call it as a multimedia control panel rather than a pc? Don't you think it would be a good idea for a Windows Media Center setup?

The Asus Eee Top ET2002T is ideal for a Windows Media Center setup. It features a built-in 20-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 1,600 x 900 and comes with a Dual Core Atom 330 processor on Ion platform, and of course, it also includes a wireless keyboard and mouse. I don't have to talk much about the Ion platform as I presume you already know it well and its capability of HD content playback.

Cooler master's Elite 100 htpc chassis

Cooler Master's new Elite 100 is an another good choice of compact chassis for your htpc, it can fit either a micro-ATX or a mini-ITX motherboard. It has a simplistic front panel provides only the power-on button, USB and audio ports. The body is made of steel and plastic. Good thing is that the asking price is unbelievable low. From what I  could see from the pictures, mind you, you may need a slim MATX for this chassis. A good choice if you are looking for something value for money from a reputable name, but definitely not for those high-end users. Other features of the Elite 100 includes:

• Multi-device support:
  - With micro-ATX board: Slim ODD x 1, 2.5" HDD x 2 or
  - With mini-ITX board: Slim ODD x 1, 2.5" HDD x 2, 3.5" HDD x 1
  
• Excellently cooled slim enclosure to support up to 65W CPU
  
• Passive mini-ITX case with silent constructional design
  
• Flex ATX 150W with Active PFC included
  

http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=6623

ALU-830 HTPC mini-itx chassis

This is another mini-itx case from Taiwan: ALU-830. The dimensions are 295 (W) x 257 (D) x 133.5 (H) mm. Judging from the included iMon remote and the following features, it won't be cheap:

• Aluminum enclosure
• Built-in iMON kits:
  1. iMON software fully compatible with WXP MCE / Vista
  2. iMON remote control fully compatible with WXP MCE / Vista
  3. iMON VFD display panel fully compatible with WXP MCE / Vista
• 2 x air holes with metal grill for heat dissipation
• WXP MCE / Vista compatible IR module
• Mini-ITX MB compatibility
• Front I/O for easy access
• 56-in-1 card reader built-in

 (pics are taken from http://www.alutek.com.tw//)

Lian LI's PC-B25F

Lian Li has just launched a new completely tool-free mid-tower case recently. This is not a HTPC case but I think it could sit beside your receiver without much problem as it is also in black. Furthermore, it's got plenty of space for your hard disks. (source: http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/product06.php?pr_index=366&cl_index=1&sc_index=25&ss_index=62)

Sharkoon announces new Temptation mATX case

(pic is taken from http://www.tcmagazine.com/)

Sharkoon, a Taiwan-based company, has introduced a new htpc case called the Temptation. The case dimensions are 245mm x 310mm x 445mm. The front panel is made of thick aluminum, but unlike my Silverstone Sugo SG01 (measures 263mm x 210mm x 393mm), this one gives you a rough feel impression. This case is not suitable for those do not have precious desk real estate for a big pc case like me. (my desk is only 440mm deep so obviously it can't take a 445mm-long-body case)

24.4cm x 21 cm 'slim' MATX board

Silverstone LC16B - capable of mounting 6 harkdisks

You may have a very nice htpc case e.g. Silverstone LC16 and it claims that it could mount 6 hard disks inside. Sounds impressive but due to the size of your motherboard, you could only fit in 4 hard disks and leave another 2 slots empty. Big name Gigabyte has some 'slim' mATX  motherboards with size just 24.4cm x 21cm (compared with the standard 24.4cm x 24.4cm), probably it would provide more room for your hard disks.  

 slim GIGABYTE GA-EG41M-US2H

 standard GA-MA78GM-UD2H

The above pictures are for comparison only. Gigabyte and other vendors also provide slim mATX or even ATX boards for 780g. Look around you'll find one.

More ion-based htpc available

More and more PC vendors rush into ION-based platform market. Previously we have Asrock, Acer and Asus, and now iChill N330 ION. It all depends on what you want, Aser's AspireRevo is cute but it does not have a DVD/BD drive, it comes with a 4-in-1 card reader instead. ASRock Ion is nice too but it lacks of an eSATA for your external hard disks. And mind you, most of these ion-based bared-bone platforms do not have the complete components inside, for example, RAMs and Hard Disk may not be included in the package.  

(pic of Asrock black is taken from http://www.hkepc.com/)

On another hand some vendors would just release plain boards for the consumer market, e.g. ASUS AT3N7A-I and INNO 3D iChill N330 ION, both provide eSATA for faster excess to your external hard disk storage.

LED-based LCD TVs

If compared with conventional LCD TVs, the LED-based LCD TVs turns off the back lights completely for dark scenes to deliver a near-perfect reproduction of black while leaving LEDs in other areas at optimum illumination. The result is reproduction of solid black rivals to those plasma TVs although it's still suffered from its narrow viewing angles which plasma TVs don't. But it would definitely consume less energy if compared with the plasma, you may need to consider the energy saving factor into account especially when most people  are talking about green products nowadays. 

There are only few big names produce LED-based LCD TVs at the moment, e.g. Sharp's XS1A series, Sony's KDL series, Philips's 42PFL9803H and Samsung's 8000, 7000 & 6000 series in which the Samsung 6000 series being the cheapest amongst them. LED-based LCD TV may be the perfect display for your htpc for time being but they have one thing in common i.e. they're all heavily over-priced.