The next time I purchase a house I will look for one that has Ethernet wired to all the rooms, but until that happens I need a way to get high speed LAN access in different areas of my home.  WiFi is too slow and unreliable.  One of the possibilities is a technology called Powerline Ethernet.  The MegaPlug AV Powerline Ethernet from ActionTec kit is one option. … [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Desktop Computer Gear, Laptop Gear, Wireless

Tagged: A/V, Networking

ActionTec MegaPlugAV 200Mbps Powerline Ethernet Kit Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 9, 2009 at 8:49 am.

The Cirago CMC1000 Multimedia Center is an enigma. I’ve never heard of the company, or the product. Google found a few online sites that carry it, so I can tell you the 500GB model I am reviewing sells for under $190 online, and its 1TB version goes for about $60 more. It sure seems like a product that someone might like, I’m just not sure who that person is. … [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, HDMI, Video

Cirago Multimedia Center Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 12, 2009 at 9:36 am.

Over the years, I’ve tried quite a few devices that allow you to watch and listen to your digital media through your television set. Some of these devices have included WiFi, some included hard drives, some required that you stream the content from a computer to the player and some required that you convert the content to a format that the player could handle. For one reason or another, I stopped using all of those devices except for the AppleTV. I really like the AppleTV’s user interface, but have never really liked the fact that I have to convert the files and then ’send’ them from my desktop computer to the AppleTV in the living room. I’m all about simplicity, and while the AppleTV comes close, it doesn’t quite get there. I think I’ve found a device that does get there tho. It’s the WD TV HD Media Player from Western Digital.

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear, Featured Items

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Device, Video

WD TV HD Media Player Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 8, 2008 at 1:00 pm.

Is there a place in the market for another MP3 player? What if this one doesn’t require a computer in order to copy music, buy music, etc? Sansa is willing to gamble that the answer to both of those questions is yes, with their new slotMusic player. Keep reading to learn more…

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, MP3

Sansa slotMusic Player Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 24, 2008 at 8:00 am.

With the massive influx of digital media in the past decade or so, consumers have become aware of the need for some way to use
their media somewhere other than a computer. More specifically, we want to be able to play our music and movies and view our
digital pictures from the comfort of the couch, and with the high definition glory of a 72″ plasma television. Apple, of course,
released the Apple TV. However, other electronics companies have tried to come up with good home media center solutions that
don’t require a full computer running Windows XP Media Center Edition, or Windows Vista Premium or Ultimate.

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Device, Video

D-Link DSM-330 DivX-Connected HD Media Player Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 15, 2008 at 6:30 pm.

It’s only been four months since I reviewed Slacker’s first generation Slacker Personal Radio Player, and now they have a new model available called the G2. I’ve loved using their first player, so I was super excited to be able to get my hands on a second generation unit. Second generation units are always better than their predecessors right? Let’s find out…

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Device, Video, WiFi

Slacker G2 Personal Radio Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 13, 2008 at 10:15 am.

You’ve no doubt heard of, or have seen the Snowball microphone from BlueMic.
It’s a very popular microphone for podcasters and anyone that wants to record audio. BlueMic have a new microphone
to add to their product line – the Snowflake USB mic. This is their first professional portable USB microphone, and I
think they have another winner on their hands.

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Device, Video

BlueMic Snowflake USB Microphone Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 29, 2008 at 10:30 am.

MP3 players come in 100’s of different shapes, sizes, colors and capacities. The player I want to show you today is unique because it’s shaped like a Mickey Mouse head. It’s the iRiver Mplayer Disney. The fine folks at Advanced MP3 Players in the UK sent one to me to review.

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, MP3

iRiver Disney Mplayer Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 13, 2008 at 8:00 pm.

Autumn is my favorite time of year for a couple different reasons. I love the cooler weather, the changing colors of the leaves and … new Apple iPods! For the last 4 years around this time, we’ve been introduced to a new iPod nano and this year is no different…

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Device, MP3, Video

Apple iPod nano (4G) Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 12, 2008 at 4:30 pm.

One of the few features Apple has yet to integrate into its iPods is the ability
to stream audio wirelessly via bluetooth. With the large number of electronic
devices and accessories either already available or coming on the market with
built-in bluetooth, it seems like Apple should finally make it a reality. But until
that magic moment, iBluon has created the TD02 (available through Brando), a small, lightweight Bluetooth audio transmitter
engineered to connect to the iPod’s connector/sync port.

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Bluetooth, Device, Video

iBluon TD02 (INFINXX AP23) Bluetooth Audio Transmitter for iPods Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 4, 2008 at 4:04 pm.

Since my first experience with digital audio recording with a Sony M1 DAT more than ten years ago I have been an avid fan of new digital audio gadgets. I even got myself a (volunteer, non-paying) gig recording a weekly chamber music series locally, which is an opportunity to spend even bigger bucks on fancy microphones and preamps. But when last year a friend gave me a 1905 Edison Standard Phonograph cylinder player, I really was in gadget heaven…

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Device, Video

Gakken Premium Gramophone Kit Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 29, 2008 at 9:05 pm.

I love my 65 inch TV. Even though it’s a rear projection TV and not a flat screen, which means it takes up a lot of space in my basement. I went from a 27 inch TV straight up to 65. I can’t go back now… no way. What do you do if you don’t have room for a giant TV, but still want that big screen experience? Vuzix thinks they have a solution with their iWear AV490 Video Eyewear. These glasses claim to give you a 62 inch screen experience. Let’s just see about that…

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Device, Video

Vuzix iWear AV920 Video Eyewear Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 19, 2008 at 9:45 pm.

I’m a minimalist. The problem is that I’m a minimalist that has too much stuff. ;o) For those of you that might be true minimalists, I have a nifty USB doo-dad to show you, that has the potential to allow you to ditch your High Def TV and DVR. It’s the PCTV HD Pro Stick (801e) from Pinnacle Systems. With it, you can use your Windows laptop or desktop computer as your TV and DVR. Let’s take a look…

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Desktop, Device, Laptop, Video

Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick (801e) USB TV Tuner Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 18, 2008 at 8:21 pm.

Gadgets that wirelessly transmit audio from one place to another seem to be pretty popular these days. Case in point – the two reviews we recently posted here: the SoundCast OutCast Wireless Outdoor Speaker and the EOS Wireless Home Audio iPod Speaker System. The product I’d like to tell you about today has approximately the same features, but comes in a smaller package and seems to be marketed towards teens. It’s the i2i Stream from Aerielle.

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Device, iPod, Video

Aerielle i2i Stream Wireless Digital Audio Streaming Device Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 15, 2008 at 9:00 pm.

Are you a fan of podcasts? For those of you that are not in the know,
podcasts are pre-recorded
audio or video ’shows’ that cover a wide variety of subject manner. These
digital files were first created for the Apple
iPod, hence the
name podcast. iPod owners that use iTunes, have an easy to use interface for
finding and downloading these shows to their computers and / or iPods.
Zune owners have a
similar ability, but owners of other digital audio players are not so lucky.
The CastGrabber comes to the rescue with a
standalone device that allows you to download podcasts into most USB equipped
MP3 players (even iPods), without the aid of a PC.

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Device, iPod, Video

CastGrabber Podcast Download Device Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 14, 2008 at 5:00 am.

I’m a big fan of webcams. Once I figured out how to broadcast a webcam stream on a webpage,
I started broadcasting from work so that my mom and friends could see me. One idea I had related to this was setting up a little home
surveillance system with my two Logitech QuickCams and my eeePC 701’s integrated webcam. I’m mostly just curious to see what my cats do
all day while I’m at work. While setting up such a stream is pretty easy, it requires running a computer 24/7 and can be a little power and
bandwidth hungry.

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Device, Video, Webcam

Brando IP Security Camera Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 22, 2008 at 10:28 am.

Do you listen to your audio player through your car’s stereo? Then I would wager that you have probably run into the same problem with volume levels that I have. Quite often, in order to hear the music, I will have to turn the volume on the player all the way to maximum and then do the same with the car stereo. This in itself isn’t the real issue though… The problem is that after I disconnect my player from the car’s stereo, I’ll almost always forget that I left the volume turned to the max. Then later when I go to listen to the car stereo or player, I’ll be blasted with extremely loud music that makes me jump out of my skin. This happened to me three times last week, so I went looking for a solution and learned about CMoy headphone amps.

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Device, Video

CMoy Headphone Amp Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 18, 2008 at 12:07 pm.

I have a confession to make… Even though I love my iPod classic, I really don’t listen to it as much in the car as I listen to… the radio. Yes, it’s true. I find myself listening to regular FM radio way more than my iPod. The radio is on when I drive into work in the morning and again in the afternoon on my way home. Why do I prefer listening to radio? One of the main reasons is that I never know what the next song will be and I like variety and finding new artists. Over the years I’ve tried XM and Sirius satellite radios and enjoyed them, but in the end, I got tired of the ads and mediocre audio quality. Now I think I have found the perfect radio gadget for me. It’s the Slacker Portable Radio.

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear, Wireless

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Device, Video

Slacker Portable Radio Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 11, 2008 at 8:30 pm.

This week’s video quick look review comes from the Gadgeteer Kid. He takes a look at the Disney Pixar Cars, Lightning McQueen 13″ TV/DVD Player Combo.

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear, Video Reviews

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Device, Video

The Gadgeteer Kid’s Video Quick Look at Disney Pixar Cars, Lightning McQueen 13″ TV/DVD Player Combo originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 19, 2008 at 4:34 pm.

When I was a kid, I remember looking in the Sears Christmas Wish Book at LEGO sets. Unfortunately for me, I never had any of those fun building bricks. But as an adult, I’m not ashamed to say that I’ve purchased a set or two. Or three ) Who can’t help but love them? As a huge LEGO fan, I knew that I had to review the HOMADE iPlayer MP3 player when Brando started selling them.

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, MP3

HOMADE LEGO Shaped MP3 i-Player Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 26, 2008 at 10:00 am.

Let’s face it, the constant evolution of technology has spoiled us. We, as consumers, crave electronics that have everything, yet are small enough to be inconspicuous when not in use. The people at Insignia have created a shelf stereo system with numerous features designed to please, yet small enough to not require a lot of space. For those of you not familiar with Insignia, it is the brand sold exclusively at Best Buy. Today I review their 75W DVD/CD/HD Radio Compact Shelf System with USB Port (Model: NS-HD2114).

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Device, Video

Insignia NS-HD2114 DVD/CD/HD Radio Compact Shelf System originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 29, 2008 at 4:14 pm.

What is the worst thing about setting up a stereo speaker system? In my opinion, it’s running all the necessary wires. I always said that if I ever build a new house, that it will have speaker wiring pre-installed in all the walls. But for an existing house without this feature, what do you do to get around this issue? You can either buy a wireless speaker system, or you can check out a wireless audio adapter like the one I’m going to tell you about today from Audioengine. The AW1 Premium Wireless Audio Adapter is designed for Audioengine’s A5 speaker system (my current favorite speakers), but will work with any other speakers just fine.

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, Device, Video

Audioengine AW1 Premium Wireless Audio Adapter originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 17, 2008 at 3:55 pm.

I have been a Mac-guy for over a decade and have owned an iPod since the beginning.
I am currently using an iPod Touch and I take it with me everywhere I go. But
being the gadget-junkie that I am, I was getting a bit bored with my current
lot of tech-toys. So, I started looking into other portable music/video players
to play with. The Samsung
P2 looked like a worthy candidate; it had several features the Touch did
not, a nice form-factor, and it had received rave reviews. I read many reviews
praising the P2 as a less costly (some even said better) alternative to the
Touch. However, those reviews were definitely coming from the perspective of
Windows users. This review will be coming from a Mac/iPod user’s viewpoint.

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, MP3

Samsung P2 (YP-P2) Digital Audio Player originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 7, 2008 at 12:00 pm.

I got into the MP3 player market a little late. I was in high school during the early years of the
digital music revolution, so I couldn’t really afford the players of the time. My very first foray
into MP3 hardware was with a very, very poorly made RCA MP3-CD player. I upgraded from that to a
Creative Muvo2 with the microdrive ripped out and a 512MB CompactFlash card installed. I never used
it much, because the interface was clunky and annoying to use.

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, MP3

Zune 8GB originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 21, 2008 at 4:00 pm.

Toshiba isn’t normally a brand name that comes to mind when a conversation about portable media players takes place. Today I’m going to take you on a tour of two of their gigabeat players, the T and U-Series portable media players.

… [visit site to read more]

Filed in categories: Audio / Video Gear

Tagged: A/V, Audio, MP3

Toshiba Gigabeat U and T Series Portable Media Players originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 26, 2007 at 7:20 pm.