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Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - Posts
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Denali Limited Edition takes Best of Video Components and Sierra Edition is named an Honoree in Home Theater Accessories.
New York, NY – November 13, 2007 – The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA®) today announced Niveus Media, the leader in high-end digital entertainment solutions for the connected home, as an International CES Innovations 2008 Design and Engineering Awards winner. Niveus’ Denali Limited Edition, boasting video scaling up to 1080p, 2TB of storage, and 7.1 Pro Audio, was awarded with Best of Innovations 2008 in the Video Components product category. The Sierra Edition, Niveus’ first eco-friendly media server designed for large volume homebuilders, was selected as an Innovations 2008 Design and Engineering Award honoree in the Home Theater Accessories product category. “The Niveus team is very proud to be recognized on the CES Innovations Honoree and Best-of roster, once again,” expressed Niveus CEO and Co-Founder, Tim Cutting. “Niveus is dedicated to developing the most sophisticated whole-home entertainment solutions and we incorporate the most advanced audio, video, and performance features to do so. Winning Best Of for Denali LE testifies to our commitment.” As a recipient of one of the highest scores in the Video Components product category, the Denali LE boasts impressive video capabilities and incorporates Nvidia’s GeForce Series 8 graphics featuring PureVideo™ HD technology for high quality video scaling up to and beyond 1080p. In addition to the award-winning video performance, one of the most distinguishing features of the Denali LE is the “Pro Audio” chipset for the highest fidelity audio reproduction. The dedicated sound card provides the cleanest and highest resolution audio from all channels (up to 7.1), and features digital-to-analog converters from Burr-Brown, chosen in top professional or consumer audio equipments around the world. Additionally, the Denali LE features the compelling Windows Vista® operating system, CableCARD technology, HD DVD, Intel processor technology, Niveus’ ConvergencePanel™ (patent-pending), and Niveus’ Glacier™ Passive Cooling technology; resulting in a silent, high-performance, A/V-style media server designed for the digital home. The Denali LE provides pristine audio and video performance for superior home theater production and remarkable whole-home entertainment. Set to debut at CES 2008 as a proud 2008 Innovations Honoree, the Sierra Edition Media Server incorporates proprietary technology and represents Niveus’ base-level offering, intended for those that appreciate the benefits of Media Server functionality and are looking to create an environmentally friendly, digital home. Full product details and availability will be announced at CES 2008. Since 1989, the prestigious Innovations Design and Engineering Awards recognize achievements in product design and engineering in the consumer electronic category. Selected by a preeminent panel of independent industrial designers, engineers and members of the trade press to honor outstanding design and engineering in consumer electronics products, entrants are judged on an extensive list of criteria, including: engineering qualities, including technical specifications and materials used; product’s intended use/function and user value; aesthetic and design qualities; unique and novel features; contributions to consumers’ quality of life; and impact on the manufacturer’s business model. Niveus Media’s Denali Limited Edition and Sierra Edition will be displayed at the 2008 International CES, which runs January 7-10, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Innovations Design and Engineering Showcase will feature honorees by product category at Innovations Plus at the Sands Expo and Convention Center, Booth # 70621. Visit www.CESweb.org/innovations for details.
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Of all the Extenders this is the premium device! I hope to get a first hand look at this while at CES. Introducing The Niveus Media Extender – Edge – The first Windows Media Center Extender designed for the custom install channel, EDGE is ISF certified and available in time for the Holidays! Shortly after the unveiling at CEDIA Expo 2007, Niveus Media, the leader in high-end digital entertainment for the connected home, formally introduces the Niveus Media Extender – EDGE. A hardware device that gives users the ability to enjoy the Niveus Media Center experience throughout the whole home, EDGE has become the first Windows Media Center Extender to receive the prestigious Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) Video Quality Certification. “We’re excited to formally introduce the Niveus Media Extender – EDGE,” states Tim Cutting, CEO, Niveus Media. “EDGE represents the final building block of the Niveus Entertainment Experience, a complete end- to end server/client product architecture that allows high definition entertainment to be accessed from any room of the house. No other vendor can offer this complete solution based on the Microsoft Media Center Platform. This, along with our recent ISF certification of EDGE, is a huge advantage over competing solutions.” Through the introductions of EDGE and the robust storage and control solutions (Niveus Storage Server and Niveus Control Server/Niveus Companion), Niveus now offers a supremely sophisticated Media Center eco-system, properly dubbed The Niveus Entertainment Experience. Also on Niveus: Upgraded Niveus Media Servers Deliver Audiophile Quality Sound – With Intel processing, Pro Audio and advanced functionality, Niveus’ 2008 product offers the highest fidelity entertainment experience. Niveus Media, the leader in high-end digital entertainment solutions for the connected home, introduces the 2008 line of Media Server products. Now boasting Pro Audio and powerful Intel processing, Niveus has optimized their Media Servers to provide pristine audio and video performance for superior home theater production and remarkable whole-home entertainment. As part of the 2008 focus to develop the most refined devices for exceptional digital entertainment throughout the home, Niveus has beefed up their entire Media Server offering including the passively cooled Summit Series Rainier and Denali Editions and the Pro Series n4, n7, and n9 Editions. Advancements to all servers include new Seagate® DB35 Series™ hard drives for video streaming performance, acoustics & reliability and Nvidia’s GeForce Series 8 graphics featuring PureVideo™ HD technology for high quality video scaling up to and beyond 1080p. One of the most distinguished upgrades sure to resonate loudly in the audiophile market is the addition of a “Pro Audio” chipset in the Pro Series n7 & n9 and the Summit Series Denali Edition and Denali Limited Edition. The dedicated sound card provides the cleanest and highest resolution audio from all channels (up to 7.1), and features digital-to-analog converters from Burr-Brown, chosen in top professional or consumer audio equipments around the world.
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The new Zune software syncs Recorded TV without the need for any 3rd party software, one of the question I have been asked is how long it takes to sync TV files with the Zune So I thought I would try a real world test. I picked on a movie I had recorded (The After Tomorrow), this was recorded with Windows Media Center via a Nova-T card (DVB-T 704 x 480) . The file is 2.4GB, running at 2:30 hours long. Starting the transfer off is easy, just navigate to Videos right click and select Sync. - 14:26 - Transfer started, ZuneEnc.exe taking around 90% CPU, this must be the transcoder
- 14:58 50% complete
- 15:21 91% complete, the CPU usage drops right down, I guess it is now copying the file
- 15:31 Transfer complete, the file is 990.6MB on the Zune
Test PC Spec: P4 3.0 with 1GB of RAM, Vista index of 3.8 So that is just over an hour for a 2:30 hour movie, which I guess is not that bad. My next test was a show recorded from a radio channel which transmits over the digital TV signal (BBC7). This is a 1:07 hour recording, 550.4mb in Media Center. It is audio only but Media Center thinks is a video file with a blank screen, I record quite a few shows of the radio and it will be nice to get them on my Zune for listening to in the car. I kicked it off and 4 minutes later it was done, 167.2mb on the Zune When I tried to play it on the Zune it didn't play at all, I guess the Zune or it's encoder does not know about DVB-T audio files, which is a real shame. The player didn't crash but there was no audio at all.
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As a Zune and Windows Media Center owner I have eagerly waiting the new Zune software with its promise of improved Recorded TV and podcast support. As the upgrade is available on Zune.net today I downloaded it and kicked the install off.
After about 10 minutes the software was installed and it was up and running, the new UI is a vast improvement over the old version, it looks like a complete re-write which is good as the v1 software was a customized Windows Media Player.
Once I connected my Zune to the PC the software asked me to update the firmware to 2.2 which took about 5 minutes and the device rebooted a couple of times, I didn't have to touch the Zune at all. One nice touch is the way it handles connecting your Zune to a second PC, in the v1 software it asked you every time if you wanted to connect as a guest but in the new version you can tell the software to always connect it as a guest. I use my Zune on my UMPC as well as my Media Center PC and it was a pain to keep telling the software to make it a guest.
The new user interface on the Zune device has been improved; it's clearer and seems faster. The music experience seems the same expect when browsing an Artist you can see their albums on a carousel at the top of the device. Pictures now give a count on the pictures in a folder, I am sure I will find other changes as I start using it.
Podcast support is one feature that I was really looking forward too. With the V1 software I had been struggling to find an elegant way of downloading and syncing podcast. I used Doppler to download the shows then use a monitored folder to do the syncing and I find most of the time I ended up syncing it myself. The other problem was finding the shows on the Zune once they had downloaded, some podcasters don't tag their shows up as Podcasts so they end up in with the rest of my music. This all changes in the V2 software, podcasting gets its own section in the devices and on the software. Much like iTunes you can subscribe to a podcast RSS feed and it downloads the latest 3 shows automatically and then you can pick what you want it to do with the other shows. I did like the syncing options, you can tell the Zune software to sync unplayed episodes, all episodes, the first unplayed or not to sync at all. I have set it to sync unplayed shows to hopefully it will keep track of what I have listened to and only sync the new ones. This setting is specific to the podcast, so different feeds can have different syncing options. Finding the shows from the Zune is much better, with the dedicated Podcast section and you can easily find and play the downloaded shows. There is also one click subscribe option that podcasters can add to their site (like this one)
Next I looked at Media Center support
In the videos section of the software I could see my recorded TV shows all I had to do was right click on the show , select Sync and then it copied the show to my Zune. There must be some transcoding going on as it took about 20 minutes to sync a 30 minute TV show and during that time the Zune software was hitting the CPU pretty hard. The size of the TV show in Media Center was 1.08GB and on the Zune it was 429MB but the quality of the video is good but it looks like there is some motion blur, I will have to play with it some more to be able get a more detailed impression
I haven't looked at auto syncing TV yet
So over all I am very impressed with the new Zune software and firmware, the Windows software is a million miles away from the old software and the syncing options are much better. Basically the whole package now works for me they way I want it to, with TV support, podcasts, wireless syncing and the other new features.
Oh and all this was on my 3 month old V1 Zune 30, well done to Microsoft for supporting the early adopters.
Pictures from the install
    
Recorded TV Sync
 
The new Zune UI
     
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The Digital Lifestyle.com video show is sponsored by Embedded Automation In this video I take a look at Tranquil's T7-HSA Home Server. This is a headless and fanless Windows Home Server.
Tranquil were one of the first to market with Windows Home Server and this is a great example of the simplicity of the platform This recording was streamed live November 6th thanks to everyone that joined in the live session, it made it a very interactive session and you can catch more live sessions at live.TheDigitalLifestyle.com T7-HSA Tranquil Harmony Home Server is available at Tranquil's online store
Price: £338.00 (Excluding VAT at 17.5%) The RSS feed for the video show is HERE
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