GeekTonic

GeekTonic Week in Review – July 11

2009-07-11T15:29:00.001-05:00

GeekTonic was back to it’s normal pace with numerous posts this past week. One of the more popular ones was the interview with SageTV CTO, Jeff Kardatzke, but there was plenty of other good stuff in there as well.

Below is a quick summary of the past week's news and stories on GeekTonic.

Stay tuned for more in-depth content for Media Gadget Fans at GeekTonic.com.

If you’re in to the Twitter thing, be sure and follow me on twitter under the name GeekTonic. Thanks for Reading GeekTonic!

Deal of the Day - Logitech Harmony 550 Remote $30

2009-07-10T15:27:00.001-05:00

Wow, thirty dollars - that's pretty darn cheap for a universal remote control! I don't really need one, but picked it up anyway. I'll probably review it and either use it with one of those endless "friends & family" installs I do or give it away on GeekTonic. Either way, it's worth checking out even though it's a refurb since it regularly sells for $130...

Amazon (affiliate) has the Logitech Harmony 550 Universal Remote Control - Refurbished $30 Free Shipping!

Thanks to andromeda_m31 on Twitter for the tip.

Guide Tool - Easy Guide Management for Windows Media Center

2009-07-10T12:33:00.001-05:00

A nice, new Electronic TV Guide management tool was developed by fredx21 (you may know him from the dvblink for HD-PVR) for managing your Windows MediaCenter EPG.

Features Include:

Local and remote guide management
Channel name and number edition
Restoration of previously edited channel names and numbers
Modification of channels’ visibility
Automated subscribing to guide services (manually, by number or by call-sign)
Tuner merge (by channel number, by call-sign or by guide service)
DVBLink sources synchronization
Listing of tuners providing channel’s sources
Generation of lean MXF file (mostly for debugging purpose)
More fun stuff to do with your channels

The main Guide Tool window looks like this:

The screen-shot below shows the Lineup Selection where you can subscribe channels to any guide services from any lineup available in your MediaCenter region.

Finally, this last screen-shot shows the Tuner Merge function where you can merge tuners based on various attributes shared by channels.

The program is a nifty tool to move your MediaCenter channels around and changing the listings outside of MediaCenter. It works with Windows Vista MediaCenter (with TV Pack) and Windows 7 MediaCenter. The program has two parts including a Guide Tool application and a MediaCenter background add-in that stores all of the tuner and channel info.

For more info and to get the download head over to 1geek1tool

found via GreenButton Forums

Deal of the Day - SiliconDust HDHR Dual QAM Tuner $122.51 Shipped

2009-07-09T18:26:00.001-05:00

My TV favorite tuner of all time, the SiliconDust HDHR Dual QAM tuner is on sale at Amazon/AntOnline(affiliate) for $122.51 Shipped. This is the cheapest I've ever seen the HDHR so this might be a good time to pick one up if you're in the market for one.

SiliconDust HDHR-US HDHomeRun Networked Digital TV Tuner $122.51

I own 2 of these which give me 4 independent QAM HD tuners (can also be used for OTA HD) with no need for open PCI slots! I really love this device and highly recommend it.

Thanks to Peter for the Tip!

The HDHomeRun works with the following Software:

Windows Media Center:

MCE 2005
Vista MCE
Windows 7 Media Center

SageTV - HTPC software for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Home Server, Mac & Linux
SnapStream BeyondTV - DVR for Windows
Elgato EyeTV - DVR for Mac
MythTV - DVR for Linux
MediaPortal - DVR for Windows
GB-PVR - DVR for Windows
VLC - Multi-platform media viewer
TSReader - MPEG-2 transport stream analysis

To check which channels are available to you through clear QAM, check out SiliconDusts Clear QAM database by imputing your zip-code and selecting your cable provider.

If you want to research the HDHR a little more before buying check out my review of the device from over a year ago