September 2013

WebTV FINALLY shuts down on Monday

Alas, it is finally no more. The MSN TV box, originally known as WebTV, is finally closing down forever on September 30, 2013. Of course, most folks thought it had shuttered years ago; the hardware hasn’t…


CEDIA Expo 2013: Day 2 Report

Another exciting day on the CEDIA Expo show floor! Today we had the chance to visit a few of the more distant booths. For every behemoth like Crestron or AMX, there are ten little booths filled…


CEDIA Expo 2013: zBoost Booth Tour

It wasn’t so much what they showed, it was what they said. Our friends at zBoost (formerly Wi-Ex) brought a lot of near-production-ready gear to the 2013 CEDIA Expo and all of it points in…


CEDIA Expo 2013 Booth Tour: DarbeeVision

The DarbeeVision booth at CEDIA Expo wasn’t easy to find, but it was packed with new and interesting technologies. Darbee has been busy this year working on partnerships, and that means more devices with Darbee technology…


CEDIA Expo 2013: DISH Booth Tour

DISH didn’t miss the opportunity. With DIRECTV a no-show at this year’s CEDIA Expo, DISH jumped in with both feet. There were DISH graphics and banners everywhere, a giant stuffed Hopper and a costumed character Hopper,…


CEDIA Expo 2013: Day 1 Wrapup

CEDIA Expo 2013 doesn’t compare in size or scale to its larger cousins IFA and CES but this trade show for home theater installers really stepped things up this year. Your blog team was on hand…


A life spent without a cable bill?

The new term is “cord-nevers.” It seems to stem from a series of articles over the past year in The Atlantic talking about the generation born after 1980 who may never get traditional pay-TV. They’re perfectly happy to make do…




QAM 101: All QAM is not the same

Thanks to ahaley for this suggestion. QAM. Most likely you think it’s either an unpronounceable random set of letters or an Australian airline. In both cases you would be wrong. It stands for Quadrature Amplitude Modulation….



What is “quality TV?”

As we inch closer to the end of Breaking Bad… there’s some argument as to what real “quality TV” is. Breaking Bad is arguably the best-produced, most meticulous show of the 2010s so far, but it’s not the only…