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November 5, 2008

The end of TV: Boxee + Apple TV + Hulu

The end of TV: Boxee + Apple TV + Hulu, a review of Boxee @ Tux Geek...

People want to do much more with their iPhone then Steve Job allows. So they jailbreak it. The same goes for the Apple TV. While it is a great and relatively cheap media center, it has restrictions, just like the iPhone. Wouldn’t it be nice to play xvid videos, stream shows from Hulu, listen to LastFm, Twitter the name of the movie you are currently watching or see what music your friends are listening to on your big screen TV connected to an Apple TV? Well, you can do that with Boxee!
Boxee is an open source media center, with social networking features, currently in an invite-only alpha stage. It is a fork of XBMC, a media center initially designed for the Xbox, but then ported to run on all major platforms. Boxee runs on Linux, Mac, and soon Windows. You can put it on your AppleTV with a grandma-simple “hack“, with no adverse effects.
What does it do?

As other media center software, Boxee allows you to browse and play media files (movies, music, photos) from local hard-disks or DVD drive and can stream music and videos from the internet or other computers in the network (SMB/SAMBA shares). It supports 1080p HD and it reads virtually any type of media, except DRM files.

Boxee scans your default media folders and downloads the related meta-data and artwork for your music and video files. Unfortunately, it doesn’t import your iTunes or iPhoto libraries - a big loss for Mac users.

When playing a song you can choose to see the lyrics (especially useful for a karaoke night) or display information about the band or artist.

October 31, 2008

HOW TO - Make a USB remote control receiver

Remir
Nice how-to at Hack-a-day from Ian on how to make a USB remote control receiver, he writes...

Now that we listen to MP3s, and watch XVIDs or x264s, a computer is the entertainment center in at least one room of most homes. Unless you have a special HTPC, though, you’re probably stuck using the keyboard to pause, change the volume, and fast-forward through annoying Mythbusters recaps. PC remote control receivers range from ancient serial port designs (who has one?) to USB devices not supported by popular software. In this how-to we design a USB infrared receiver that imitates a common protocol supported by software for Windows, Linux, and Mac. We’ve got a full guide to the protocol plus schematics and a parts list.

September 26, 2008

Participate in the US Presidential debate with crowd narration

Johan writes in...

A Neuros community member has created a technology for superimposing chat on top of a TV broadcast, called 'Crowd Narration' using the Neuros OSD. Users won't need a Neuros device to participate at http://narration.neuros.tv/ but their chat text will be sent in real time to participating viewers watching the debate through their Neuros OSD.

September 8, 2008

RealDVD - Copy DVDs?

RealDVD is being touted as one of the only legal ways to "back up" DVDs. It seems to make a copy on your drive, keeps the DRM and adds more Real player style DRM.

Here's the funny part about all this - awhile back (1999) a ton of people were sued and got in trouble for trying to back up their DVDs, it still happens to this day although rare.

That said you can't build a DVD jukebox without getting sued.

Most people nowadays rip DVDs using many of the free open source tools (lots of posts on MAKE about that). Back to 1999, when the encryption(s) on the DVDs were broken allowing copies to be made (DeCSS) - they key actually came from the XingDVD player, from Xing Technologies, a subsidiary of RealNetworks. I'm pretty sure to this day 2600 magazine cannot even link to the DeCSS program, source, or anything.

I'm sticking with HandBrake.

August 14, 2008

Easy Scrabble susan

Jenny @ CRAFT points us to this easy scrabble lazy susan using a bracket, some illustration board, and fuzzy furniture feet.

HOW TO - build an adjustable projector mount

If you find yourself transporting your video projector to new locations often, a sturdy and versatile mount is a must -

This projector mount will hold your valuable beamer securely while allowing you to point it most anywhere you would need. The components can be found at Lighting/Grip or Photography resellers. The parts as described here run about $130 - not cheap, but well worth it to protect and properly utilize your expensive video projection box.

- not cheap, but really not that bad when you consider pre-built alternatives of comparable quality. - Build a projector mount that will go anywhere

More:
Build Your Own Projector Mount...

August 4, 2008

What is this toilet paper contraption?

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This 3 beds, 1 baths house was available in Wausau, WI - when browsing through the photos you can't help to wonder what this toilet paper contraption is and if it's included. Post up your guesses in the comments, winner gets something cool from the Maker Shed.

July 30, 2008

Home automation round up

Here's a round up of just some of the home automation projects, kits and more found on MAKE! If you do home automation, post what you've made, used or bought in the comments!

You could make your own "proximity based power system"...

Make Pt0861
Make - Volume 08 - Smart HVAC (Page 140).

MIDAS: Homemade Dorm Room Home Automation System.

Md Stamp
Home automation with the Basic Stamp.

Experimenta
Use old pda as interface for home automation.

Make Pt0860
Homebrew Home Automation Project.

Rackbox - Extreme home automation.

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Wireless Webcam For Homebrew Automation/Security Project.

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Home Automation hacks (Wiki). A couple cool hacks here - X10RfConfiguration - essentially converts the fairly unreliable powerline X10 to a more reliable (under many circumstances) RF X10 at virtually no cost and homebrew X10 signal analyzer - rather than measure signal strength, this homebrew signal analyzer (built with a lego mindstorms RCX) actually counts the transmissions that arrive at the destination X10 sensor, for comparison to the source sensor. Missing transmissions indicate reliability problems.

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The Open Source Gift Guide: Open source hardware ... Here's some great opensource DIY Home automation software, written in Perl with a Web interface. For windows or Linux/unix. It also works with the One Wire Weather station posted a few days ago." MisterHouse is an open source home automation program. It's fun, it's free, and it's entirely geeky. Written in Perl, it fires events based on time, web, socket, voice, and serial data. It currently runs on Windows 95/98/NT/2k/XP and on most Unix based platforms, including Linux and Mac OSX. $ Just need to buy/eBay the home automation hardware, like x10 (easily found for cheap).

Make Pt0863
Smarthome's INSTEONNetLinc devices (works with iPhone).

June 29, 2008

HOW TO - Stackable sound baffles

Jim Robert made an instructable for stackable "gobos," portable sound baffles for absorbing or reflecting sound for a reconfigurable sound work environment. He has the tutorial up on his website, too.

June 25, 2008

Lost the remote? Use your face...

Lost the remote? Use your face... frowning skips commercials I guess...

A researcher has discovered a way to use facial expressions to speed and slow video playback.

By using a combination of facial expression recognition software and automated tutoring technology Jacob Whitehill, a computer science Ph.D. student from UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering, is leading the project that ultimately is part of a larger venture to use automated facial expression recognition to make robots more effective teachers.

HOW TO - Turn your Xbox 360 into a streaming Netflix player

Watch-Now-Head
Fun hack @ LifeHacker, turn your Xbox 360 into a streaming Netflix player.

April 17, 2008

Sony XEL-1 OLED TV teardown

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Sony Xel1 Mainboard
I saw one of the Sony XEL-1 OLED TVs in Tokyo and wanted to take one apart on the spot, luckily Bunnie just posted up some awesome photos! He writes -

I was at the Embedded Systems Conference today in San Jose, and I saw a presentation where a Sony XEL-1 OLED TV was torn down live. It’s a sweet piece of technology, the crispest screen I’ve ever seen. Unlike LCDs, the screen doesn’t develop weird artifacts when you poke at it or twist it. I first saw it at CES in January, and then I got to lay my hands on it ever so briefly while in Japan a couple weeks ago…so tempted to get one…and then, I run into it today, again, by chance: the speaker’s luggage was lost so the teardown presentation, originally scheduled for yesterday, got moved to the day I was at the conference.

MultiScreener

Multiscreener-Server-Screen-Big
MultiScreener looks very handy if you need to play movies on multiple screens and want to keep them sync'ed up...

MultiScreener is a set of freeware applications that synchronize the playback of Quicktime movies on multiple computers, using a local network to tie them all together.

It is intended for multi-screen video walls, multichannel art installations, and the like. (It's an alternative to Pioneer DVD Players and expensive synchronizer hardware.) There are two applications: Server and Client. The server plays a movie and sends position information over the network. Each client compares its position to the server's and changes its playback speed to compensate.

March 31, 2008

Carbon fiber draft tower

Raelx made this absolutely sick draft tower for his keggerator with carbon fiber. DIY alert, however, the guy works for Cannondale, so he's got primo access to supplies and tools. He includes some nice construction photos, too.

Related:

From the pages of MAKE:

Working with Carbon Fiber - Form, lay up, and cure your own high-performance composites

March 3, 2008

DIY CD changer

Nophead made this awesome seven-shelf cd changer, which he just retired (all his cds are ripped as mp3s, now) to make more space in his workshop. Documentation is better late than never! - [via] Link.

February 19, 2008

Erector sets and more (iPod & iPhone robots, R2D2 projectors...)

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@The NYC Toy fair 2008 Erector was there, perhaps best known for Erector sets - but these folks had a mind blowing product line that I didn't expect. They have a series of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth robots that work with iPhones and iPods and controllable from anywhere in the world.

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They had their "classic" Erector set on display, but that's no match for this giant creature.

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Lastly, they licensed R2-D2 from Star Wars and sorta went nuts - this R2 unit is a real home projects, web camera, DVD player, iPod / iPhone stereo - and a robot you can control from anywhere. When it needs to project, it tilts back and projects a stunning image just like any other home projector. Obi-Wan you're my only hope, and $3,000+ dollars. It's not released - this was it's debut.

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Oh, it's remote is a Millennium Falcon, of course.

More:

Erector - Link.
More photos of Erector @ Flickr - Link.
Giant set of NYC Toy fair 2008 photos @ Flickr - Link.
MAKE's coverage of the NYC Toy Faire 2008 in one place! - Link.

February 4, 2008

TV-B-Gone Gun

Ferry, from the HackedGadgets Forum, writes:

"I took 30 IR LEDs and wired them up, a SMD FET switches them on and off and is wired up with a pinheader connector to the TV-B-Gone. Internally the FET is connected to the output pin of the controller, which is also connected to the transistor driving the normal IR LED.

I took a lens out of a old beamer, and used a PVC tube to fit all the stuff in.
After all I painted it black, paint doesn't hold too well on PVC but whatever.
It's possible to focus the beam by turning on a blue LED and slide the LEDs when loosening the screws on the side."

TV-B-Gone Gun - Link

Related:

TV-B-Gone coverage on the Make: Blog - Link

Bars rise with web 2.0 popularity

In the same vein as some of the network desk ornaments from Ambient Devices, the "Wable" is a physical bar graph that gets it information from a customizable web application with an intent to visualize it's owners "web identity" over time. When there is activity on your personal sites like Flickr, Delicious, Plazes, and Last.Fm, the corresponding bar rises in height. Although pretty, the physical representation seems way too obvious to us.

[via] - Link

February 3, 2008

100-inch uber Superbowl screen on a budget

Pstam Projector Living Room
Pstam Projector Htpc
Pstam Projector Off Front
Paul writes -

Last year around superbowl time, I posted an article showing how my roommate and I had built a stadium seating setup for our living room. This year, we went one step further and added a 2500 lumen projector to the mix to create the ultimate home theater system on a budget...

100-inch uber Superbowl screen on a budget - Link.

January 31, 2008

MovieBeam hardware and software hacking...

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Here's a wiki dedicated to opening up the MovieBeam player, a Linux-based set-top-box recently obsoleted by the demise of the MovieBeam service -

The MovieBeam service was a unique system for delivery of movie rentals to the home. It was based on a set-top-box using a special over-the-air data receiver, a hard drive and secure playback software. The terrestrial broadcast data transmissions would continually "beam" new movies and promotional material to the box where they would be stored for subsequent playback. The system would keep somewhere between 80-100 titles on the hard drive available for instant rental. While some of the hardware is quite specialized, the underlying system runs a variant of the Linux operating system and theoretically the box can be used for other purposes than its original design.

Purchased by Movie Gallery in early 2007, operations for the MovieBeam service ceased on or about December 15, 2007 and their website went down shortly after that. Inquiries with what was left of customer support regarding what to do with the player were met with "you can do as you please with the player." This wiki is intended as a repository for information regarding hacks and exploits on the MovieBeam player in the hopes that a few of them can be saved from a landfill.

MovieBeam wiki, thanks Dexter! Link.