Tivo’s been here on the HTF blog a lot lately with bad news, now there is a bit of good news or indifferent news depending on your outlook.  It looks like Tivo has finally made some tangible steps toward providing its service to Canada.  There are reports that the newest software release of the tivo box allows Canadian postal ...

  Sony and Matsushita Electric are working on fully 3D video they feel will be ready for prime time by 2020.  This means fully three dimensional television where you’re able to look around and you’re completely immersed in high definition images.    They plan on making this a commercial reality and to bring 3D ...

Xbox 360’s release date draws ever nearer; can you taste the palpable anticipation across the web?  Microsoft hopes to make this the holiday season of the Xbox360.  Just as Christmas season 1977 was the Christmas of the Atari.  Ah yes I remember it well,  Christmas dinner…blasting alien space invaders.  It ...

Mpeg4 is the name for the latest standard of Mpeg encoding from the Moving Pictures Experts Group (mpeg-7 and 21 notwithstanding).  Mpeg is an audio/video compression standard used for video editing, digital cameras and most notably the Mpeg2 standard is used in digital broadcast TV and DVD.  Mpeg2 has been around since 1994, the newer ...

You’ve heard of THX certification for home theater equipment.  With everything from refrigerators to socks that are getting microprocessors and LCD screens built in  there is a new level of certification out there.  Get ready for “IT PLAYS DOOM!”; a right of passage for any device.  This should be standard ...

Now that the NHL lockout is over and the next NHL season is a go, the next question now is how much hockey will fans get in HD?   Last year the CBC aired only the all star game and skills competition in HD.  But HD CBC was unveiled last spring to subscriber based services like satellite and cable but only over the air in ...

Everyone with an Ipod is familiar with iTunes, Apples internet mp3 download service where you can pay for MP3 and take advantage of other streaming music options.  However most users I suspect have promptly avoided iTunes as their online musical source.  The MP3 are overpriced and include DRM encoding which is a big inconvenience ...

A bit of time off work has afforded me the rare opportunity to head to the movies.  I don’t often get to go to the real show but this time I set out to see an old Marvel comics favourite of mine brought to the big screen; Fantastic Four.  First, I got to see the trailer for another movie I’m looking forward to.  ...

HD DVD is an optical storage medium developed by Toshiba to replace the DVD.  Blu-Ray is a slightly newer optical storage medium also intended to replace DVD developed by Sony.  Talk of an impending format war began to subside as the two sides joined in a series of meetings to try to hammer out a mutually beneficial agreement ...

Outlaw is one of the newest and highly regarded consumer electronics companies today.  They’re one an online exclusive retailer, designer and manufacturer who makes high quality home theater audio at affordable prices.  You won’t find Outlaw equipment at any retail stores, they only deal over the internet through their ...