The Basics: Exceptional Innovation has established a name in custom-retail and home-automation circles for its Life|ware system, a software-based automation platform that runs on Windows Media Center PCs. The addition of Life|ware to a Media Center PC allows you to control compatible whole-house products (lighting, security, HVAC, music distribution) easily through the Media Center interface. It was only a matter of time until EI decided to release its own Media Center hardware, with the Life|ware software preloaded; these new units are called Life|media. Life/media is available in five different configurations, which vary in hard-drive storage, processing speed, graphic cards and overall size. The LMS-750 is a higher-end, four-rack-space model with a 3TB hard drive, DVR functionality, a DVD/CD burner and two built-in CableCARD/Clear-QAM tuners to access premium HD channels (for non-cable users, the LMS-700 offers the same specs, but sports dual NTSC/ATSC ...

The Basics: Exceptional Innovation has established a name in custom-retail and home-automation circles for its Life|ware platform, a software-based automation system that runs on Windows Media Center PCs. The addition of Life|ware to a Media Center PC allows you to control compatible whole-house products (lighting, security, HVAC, multiroom distribution) easily through the Media Center interface. It was only a matter of time until EI decided to release its own Media Center hardware, with the Life|ware software preloaded. These new units are called Life|media. Life|media is available in five different configurations, which vary in hard-drive storage, processing speed, graphic cards and overall size. The LMC-500 is a mid-level, three-rack-space model with a 2TB hard drive, DVR functionality, a DVD/CD burner, an FM tuner and two NTSC and ATSC tuners (the step-up LMS-550 replaces the FM/NTSC/ATSC tuners with dual CableCARD/Clear-QAM tuners, but otherwise has ...

title: Explaining Surround Sound category: Feature Article review date: March 2003 reviewed by: Jerry Del Colliano I don’t blame you if you are confused by all of the audio/video acronyms that go along with surround sound. The moron who thought that real people would intuitively be able to figure out all the surround sound options currently on the market should be working in another field. AudioRevolution.com is going to give you the basics on the most important surround sound features for music, movies and more.

Introduction The 1080p projection market just got a lot more interesting, thanks to the arrival of Epson’s PowerLite Home Cinema 1080. While other big-name projection companies like Sony, Mitsubishi, and Panasonic have priced their entry-level 1080p projectors between $4,500 and $6,000, Epson is making a bold statement with the Home Cinema 1080, which costs just $2,999. Inherent skeptic that I am, my first thought when I see a product priced so aggressively is, what gives? Surely some big sacrifices must take place to reach that price point. Even on paper, I could tell that the Home Cinema 1080 doesn’t skimp in the features department, but how would its image quality measure up? Set-up Over the past few years, I’ve closely followed the progression of Epson’s high-definition projector line. The first-generation PowerLite TW100, which cost $4,995 back in 2002, still serves as my primary living room display. While it renders generally clean, colorful HD and DVD images, it ...

Introduction Let me begin by coming clean about probably being one of the bigger nerds at AVRev.com when it comes to the home theater techno-toys. I jumped at the opportunity to review an all-in-one media manager and the Escient DVDM-552 did not disappoint. Escient is not new to the arena of the music management category of home theater. With several management devices already successfully on the market, Escient was primed for a big splash when it released the DVDM-552 in early 2006. Escient is a division of D&M Holdings, which also owns familiar names such as Marantz, Denon, Boston Acoustics and McIntosh, none of them wimps in the home theater industry. The $5,999 DVDM-552 is a multi-zone music and movie manager targeted for use in a home theater. It slices, it dices and it purées all your media into one conveniently organized interface. It combines DVDs, Internet radio, SACDs, CDs and MP3s into three neatly ...