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Archive: Home Entertainment
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February 19, 2008
Erector sets and more (iPod & iPhone robots, R2D2 projectors...)
@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.
They had their "classic" Erector set on display, but that's no match for this giant creature.
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.
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.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Feb 19, 2008 10:30 AM
Home Entertainment, Robotics, Toys and Games |
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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
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Feb 4, 2008 12:00 PM
Culture jamming, Electronics, Home Entertainment |
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| Comments (4)
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.
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
Feb 4, 2008 07:00 AM
Home Entertainment |
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February 3, 2008
100-inch uber Superbowl screen on a budget
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.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Feb 3, 2008 07:25 AM
DIY Projects, Home Entertainment |
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| Comments (4)
January 31, 2008
MovieBeam hardware and software hacking...
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.MovieBeam wiki, thanks Dexter! Link.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.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 31, 2008 12:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Home Entertainment |
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January 24, 2008
DIY Video tape encoding station
Ryan writes in -
Here's a video tape encoding station I setup using some old gear I had laying around and a Neuros MP4 Recorder. I'm recording the tapes at 320 x 240 at super fine quality and the files produced are beautiful. As a bonus they play perfectly without conversion on both Zunes and iPods.DIY Video tape encoding station - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jan 24, 2008 05:00 PM
DIY Projects, Gadgets, Home Entertainment |
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| Comments (10)
December 21, 2007
DMX controlled bookshelf
Tim writes -
Well, after seeing the many houses dancing to Trans-Siberian Music, I decided it was time to do the same to my house. The problem is that I currently live in Hong Kong and in a 52 story building. Instead I wired up my living. At first the project was going to simply be mood lighting, but then I added DMX to my controller and Vixen Lights and this is what I got. The projects uses 96 SMD RGB LEDs (how is the for acronyms?). There are six TI TLC5940 16 ch controller chips on a custom board I made myself. There is a Parallax Propeller controlling the whole thing. Enjoy and Merry Christmas!DMX controlled bookshelf - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Dec 21, 2007 03:00 AM
Electronics, Holiday projects, Home Entertainment |
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| Comments (3)
December 9, 2007
Curtain makes it looks like you have a life
The "Expected Curtain" or "Curtain for the lonely person" is meant to make your home more secure by implementing "Home Alone" trickery and adding human silhouettes in the windows of an empty apartment or house. The mysterious figures disappear during the day and only appear at night when the lights go on. This project might either improve or hinder your social life depending on how jealous your significant other is.
Posted by Jonah Brucker-Cohen |
Dec 9, 2007 03:19 AM
Home Entertainment |
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November 1, 2007
DIY sneaky surround-sound
In today's O'Reilly Digital Media newsletter, David Battino has a piece on how you can burn your own surround-sound DVDs without spending a fortune on encoding software.
In short, you load six mono WAV files into an AC3 encoder and then drag the resulting file to your DVD-burning program. Depending on the encoder's capabilities, you may need to interleave the six mono files into a single multichannel file first. And in Roxio Toast, which we'll use here to burn the DVD, the secret is to Option-drag the AC3 file.
DIY Surround-Sound DVDs - Link
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Nov 1, 2007 04:00 PM
DIY Projects, Home Entertainment, Music |
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October 24, 2007
Infrared remote control receiver for Media Centers
Serasidis writes in -
An RC5 infrared remote control receiver that can be used to handle any function or software installed in your Media Center PC. Further, it can be used to power On/Off your Media Center even it is in Hibernate, stand-by or power-off mode.Infrared remote control receiver for Media Centers - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Oct 24, 2007 07:00 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Home Entertainment |
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| Comments (3)
High power TV-B-Gone kit - turn TVs off from 100 feet away
The MAKE store will be carrying this new open source hardware kit shortly, but if you can't wait you can get it from Adafruit now... -
Tired of all those LCD TVs everywhere? Want a break from advertisements while you're trying to eat? Want to zap screens from across the street?TV-B-Gone Kit [N. America/Asia v1.0] - $19.50 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits - Link.The TV-B-Gone kit is what you need! This ultra-high-power, open source kit version of the popular TV-B-Gone is fun to make and even more fun to use. This version is best used in countries with NTSC: North America & Asia.
This kit comes with all parts necessary. Tools and batteries are not included. This is a very simple kit and great for people who have never soldered anything before.
Power: 2 AA batteries (not included)
Output: 2 narrow-beam and 2 wide-beam IR LEDs
Number of TV power codes: 46This covers pretty much every TV of the following brands, including the latest flat-screens and plasma TVs:
Acer, Admiral, Aiko, Alleron, Anam National, AOC, Apex, Baur, Bell&Howell, Brillian, Bush, Candle, Citizen, Contec, Cony, Crown, Curtis Mathes, Daiwoo, Dimensia, Electrograph, Electrohome, Emerson, Fisher, Fujitsu, Funai, Gateway, GE, Goldstar, Grundig, Grunpy, Hisense, Hitachi, Infinity, JBL, JC Penney, JVC, LG, Logik, Loewe, LXI, Majestic, Magnavox, Marantz, Maxent, Memorex, Mitsubishi, MGA, Montgomery Ward, Motorola, MTC, NEC, Neckermann, NetTV, Nikko, NTC, Otto Versand, Palladium, Panasonic, Philco, Philips, Pioneer, Portland, Proscan, Proton, Pulsar, Pye, Quasar, Quelle, Radio Shack, Realistic, RCA, Samsung, Sampo, Sansui, Sanyo, Scott, Sears, SEI, Sharp, Signature, Simpson, Sinudyne, Sonolor, Sony, Soundesign, Sylviana, Tatung, Teknika, Thompson, Toshiba, Universum, Viewsonic, Wards, White Westinghouse, Zenith
Max distance: At least 100 ft!
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Oct 24, 2007 03:00 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Home Entertainment, Open source hardware |
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| Comments (8)
The TV remote control
"TV remote control" by Philippe Kindelis -
The TV remote control uses the principle of water displacement and the conductive properties of water to connect different cables. It highlights principles and processes that the user can interact with. It is an exploration as to whether water and electricity can be put together to create a new narrative in the way we interact with technological products.Order & Chaos. Design From a Technological Taboo. The TV Remote Control - [via] Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Oct 24, 2007 01:00 PM
Arts, Home Entertainment, Made On Earth |
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October 11, 2007
Black Box lightshow
MAKE Flickr photo pool member Rosendahl writes -
I just finished this yesterday. Based on an original design that I built in college, this is an LED lightshow that plugs into any audio source. (I have it on top of our home entertainment system, so it shows whatever we're listening to or watching.)Black Box lightshow - Link.The display is divided vertically into left and right channels. It displays the top half of the waveform of each channel with their zero levels in the center. The two knobs control the amplitude and the sweep speed.
When set to the right speed, a strong bass note will show up as a floating red bubble. A note an octave up will be two bubbles. Notes inbetween will be a series of bubbles floating up or down the display. Of course, all the other frequencies are in there, too, so you get a much more complicated display, but the bass tends to be the most prominent. Dynamics from drums, etc. cause the width to pulse. It all ends up being quite hypnotic.
The box... well, it's just a black box I built with a plexiglass front. Suggestions for a sexier box are welcome!
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Oct 11, 2007 06:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Home Entertainment |
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| Comments (1)
October 10, 2007
Retro stereo mod for a media center PC
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Shawn writes -
Saw the TV Retro casemod... I made something similar and built a PC and monitor right into it.Retro stereo mod for a media center PC - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Oct 10, 2007 08:00 AM
Computers, Home Entertainment |
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| Comments (3)
October 8, 2007
TV retro casemod
Steve Lodefink sent us a link to pics of this 1957 Magnavox set re-used as the cabinet for a modern (CRT) TV and stereo system.
1957 Magnavox TV - Link
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Oct 8, 2007 05:00 PM
DIY Projects, Home Entertainment |
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| Comments (2)
October 1, 2007
Keyless entry hack
Ryan (co-founder of the MAKE NYC group) made a cool keyless entry hack for his apartment awhile back, he writes -
Now don't tell the co-op board, but I crafted a plan to ditch my Mul-T-Lock key for good. My apartment building, of course, uses an intercom system to remotely unlock the front door for guests, deliveries, etc. This keychain upgrade gets me in the front door... keylessly.Keyless entry hack - Link.The mechanism is simple enough, just a momentary button on the panel in my apartment, but the mess of wires in the wall is a little unsettling. I took some meter readings of the terminals and sorted out the door button wiring. You can see where the door button is soldered through the PCB, which made it easier to identify the proper terminals. This panel has a "Door", "Talk" and "Listen" button. The "Door" button is normally-open and the circuit is about 22V. In the following steps we're going to effectively bypass the button with our own circuit.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Oct 1, 2007 05:00 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Home Entertainment |
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| Comments (1)
September 4, 2007
NSA@home - distributed FPGA MD5 cracker
Here's something fun to do with HD-video electronics... -
NSA@home is a fast FPGA-based SHA-1 and MD5 bruteforce cracker. It is capable of searching the full 8-character keyspace (from a 64-character set) in about a day in the current configuration for 800 hashes concurrently.NSA@home - distributed FPGA MD5 cracker - [via] Link.The cracker is built out of surplus Grass Valley HD video transform boards, scrapped by GV because of defects. A useful tool was developed to assist the board reverse-engineering effort.
The chip design consists of a pattern generator, a hash algorithm and a lookup engine in each FPGA. The FPGAs are connected to smaller "switch FPGAs", which distribute data to and gather results from them. Those switches link to each other and ultimately to an USB port (which had to be added).
A dedicated PC box communicates with the boards through an USB hub. The software running on it post-processes hit indications from the FPGA boards and prepares inputs for them.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Sep 4, 2007 12:00 PM
Electronics, Home Entertainment |
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August 14, 2007
Home built solid state 300W power amp
I know nothing about homebrewing audio gear, but this DIY 300W power amp, built on six LM3886 chips, sure looks bad ass. Here's how the builder describes the project:
My design uses a PCB to hold 3 paralleled 3886s (i.e. PA150), and then I use the DRV134 to bridge 2 of the PA150 PCB boards. The function of DRV134 is to convert the un-balanced input signal to a balanced signal, so that the non-inverted signal is fed to one PA150, and the inverted signal is fed the another PA150. One of the PA150 is connected to the speaker's positive input, and the other PA150 is connected to the speaker's negative input. Because of this push-pull configuration, the total gain of the amplifier is doubled. Each PA150 has a gain of 20, so the gain of the BPA300 is 40.
DIY BPA300 GC - 300W 6x LM3886 bridged-paralleled power amplifier - [via] Link
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Aug 14, 2007 04:00 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Home Entertainment |
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July 12, 2007
TV lift cabinet
Troy writes -
How to build a TV Lift cabinet using an off-the-shelf dresser drawers and an off-the-shelf TV Lift Kit from Firgelli Automations. You could easily spend many thousands of dollars on a custom built cabinet with TV Lift, but for about $500. You could spend more, depending on the ready-to-build furnature you buy, but ours was quite inexpensive.TV Lift Cabinet in under three hours - Link.
Posted by Phillip Torrone |
Jul 12, 2007 04:00 PM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Home Entertainment |
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| Comments (3)
July 7, 2007
HOW TO - Make an aux-in for the Bose SoundDock
Will O'Brien posted this short how-to on Hack A Day because he says the site gets quite a few hits on posts about the Bose SoundDock portable speaker system. On my site, Street Tech, the review of the SoundDock also gets lots of traffic, so there appears to be a lot of SoundDock enthusiasts out there...
There is a solderless way to hack an aux input for the Sounddock.(1) Go to Wal-mart (or elsewhere) and buy the Griffin Dock Adapter for iPod Shuffle (~$20) and a Belkin Speaker and Headphone splitter (~$4). (The Belkin splitter is needed in order to fit properly over the Shuffle plug on the device, but other cables/adapters might work.)
(2) Remove the existing adapter plate and replace it with the Dock adapter.
(3) Set the switch to speaker. (Very Important!)
(4) Plug in one end of the Belkin adapter and you are ready to go! Any input signal automatically activates the Sounddock. Now you have a fully functional female and male stereo headphone input for your Sounddock.-->Total cost ~$25 and no soldering required.
Hack A Day - Link
Street Tech Bose SoundDock review - Link
Posted by Gareth Branwyn |
Jul 7, 2007 10:10 AM
DIY Projects, Electronics, Gadgets, Home Entertainment, Music, Portable Audio and Video |
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