Ever since we got our hands on Samsung's Media Center Extender at CES last year, we've wondered how the CE giant's rendition would stack up against the rest. Rather than build the Media Center Extender functionality into a TV the way HP has, or make a completely separate set-top-box like Linksys or D-Link, the $200 MediaLive Media Center Extender is designed to be a companion product for Samsung HDTVs. It can be mounted to the back of certain Samsung sets, and with the help of HDMI-CEC, the TV's remote will control the box even while it's out of sight -- of course, this begs the question of whether or not it will work with other TVs, but we'll just have to wait and try it ourselves when it launches next month. Oh, and in case you don't know already, Media Center Extenders are not just another media streamer, because it will allow you to have the full (almost) Vista Media Center experience -- including the ability to watch live HD from CableCARD tuner -- on any TV (connected wired or wirelessly) in your house.

Engadget HD has gotten the latest on the highly anticipated update for Vista Media Center and it doesn't look good. The first release candidate made it into testers hands recently and they weren't happy to see that the most anticipated features -- support for a DirecTV HD tuner and native H.264 support -- got pushed to Windows 7. So head over to Engadget HD for more details (screen shots included).

This was the first time The Cable Show was back in the Big Easy since Katrina, and the first we've attended, too. For those unfamiliar, it's the cable industry's biggest event, and we certainly left with a new perspective on Big Cable. In case you missed what's coming down the coax in the next year, here's a rundown of our coverage.

Hands-on and on location

• Hands-on with the Motorola Tuning Adapter MTR700
• Hands-on with the Cisco Tuning Adapter STA1520
• The Cable Show 2008 floor tour
• The CableNET Booth tour at The Cable Show
• Up close and personal with the new Pace HD STBs
• Samsung shows off SMT-3090 tru2way DVR
• Cable has big plans for tru2way

Announcements

• Motorola study finds millennials hungry for VOD
• Tuning adapters hit CableLabs testing lair, still not ready for public consumption
• ADB shows off tru2way STB to MSOs
• ESPN unveils The Ultimate Remote, is WiFi worth $300?
• ESPN ratings 43% higher in HD homes than SD abodes in April
• Motorola's SmartStream remote diagnostics to replace truck rolls
• Comcast claims more HD than anyone, anywhere
• Time Warner Cable signs up MGM HD
• QVCHD launches on SES AMERICOM satellites

Hi-def and DVRs go together like peanut butter and jelly, but even with all the great DVRs available today, none are perfect. TiVo offers the best overall user experience and features, but lacks a few fundamental features that most cable STBs have -- like VOD, for starters. Although this isn't TiVo's fault, when it comes down to figuring out what's right for your family, it really doesn't matter. During Tivo's earnings call yesterday, it was reaffirmed that TiVo is working one step closer to making the ultimate cable DVR by including two-way functionality using the latest CableLabs standard tru2way. For those who haven't been keeping track at home, tru2way has undergone an identity crisis, and if you go back long enough, you'll find that it was called CableCARD 2.0 -- by someone. The way this would work is that you'd have a way on a TiVo to access the cable company's UI, so good or bad, when you're accessing VOD content, you'd see the same thing as if you were using a Moto or SA Cisco box. What isn't known is if current HD TiVo owners, with the help of a tuning resolver and some software, would have access to the same features. We don't see why not, but this stuff is already way more complicated than it should be, and at this point we wouldn't put anything by CableLabs.

Some rumors never die, and this one we heard even before the official Warner press release was issued. Now that the format war is officially over, newspapers and magazines everywhere are looking back on the events preceding Toshiba's announcement. While no one really knows why each studio made its decision, The Globe and Mail cites "analysts" who think the payoff was a factor. Well, we asked Warner point blank about the payoff rumor and Kevin Tsujihara, president, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group said that it "was not a bidding war" and that it really came down to Q4 sales. This answer leaves us with the impression that while some money probably changed hands, the real reason why Warner went Blu was because during all of 2007 the Blu-ray versions of Warner's titles always outsold the HD DVD. The bottom line is that regardless of any single payoff, since Warner owns most of the home media market, it had the most to lose if it waited too long to chose a format. [Disclosure: Engadget's parent company's parent company is Time Warner]

While we've become accustomed to Blu-ray players being released every six months, it's a little ridiculous when we're forced to wait for a new player longer than it's on the market. Eventually we expect the cycle to slow down -- like when BD Live players are out for example -- and many believed that the Samsung BD-UP5000 could be one of those players based on promises when announced. Once you have an Ethernet port for internet content, REON video processing, internal decoding and bitstream support for every codec, discrete analog output, as well as HDMI 1.3, what else could possibly warrant a mid year revamp? We suspect the problem is that the player isn't delivering, and on top of that, we don't think it's Samsung's fault. You see, just like the LG BH200, the BD-UP5000 is based on Broadcom's Reference design BCM97440, and the word on the street is that it isn't ever going to deliver. So it'd make sense that Sammy would change the platform for one that's actually able to get the job done. So yeah, this Broadcom bit is just speculation, but we did contact the outfit to figure out what the deal was, and while it was very responsive at first, as soon as we asked about the troubles with the BCM97400, it must'a lost our email address (or maybe its servers have been down for a week). The good news is that Samsung doesn't see the BD-UP5500 as a replacement, and promises a suitable replacement for the high-end dual-format customer in the second half of '08.

**Update** Samsung says that the date it'll be discontinued is subject to change.

According to the latest NPD group report, during the month of December Blu-ray players held 60 percent of the HD media player market -- despite the fact that HD DVD players were considerably cheaper. While that might've helped Warner in its decision to go Blu, the move has definitely had a dramatic effect on player sales since. According to the same study the week after the announcement, Blu-ray players were able to grab 93 percent of the market, which puts the year to date (short, we know) share for Blu-ray players at 70 percent. Granted, it's hard to put too much stock in just a week or two of data, but if this and the recent media sales numbers (85 percent) becomes a trend, maybe this won't be such a slow death for HD DVD after all.

[Via Blu-ray.com]

If you're the type who just has to be the first to have everything, then don't waste any time and rush over to Apple.com to pre-order your MacBook Air. Aside from the regular list of MacBook accessories, you'll have to decide if it's worth $300 to go from a 1.6Ghz Core 2 Duo to a 1.8Ghz. The only other choice to ponder is if your also the SSD type. Sure, SSDs are faster and use less power than their spinning brothers, but at $999 -- and 16GBs less capacity -- it's a hard pill to swallow. Of course you can get the ultimate MacBook Air for $3,098 and while you're at it, go ahead and get an all but useless optical drive for $99 and what is almost sure to be a required accessory on any first gen product; AppleCare at $249.

HD DVD and Blu-ray had their booths right next to each other and as you might expect the amount of traffic was night and day. As you can see in the pictures, the HD DVD booth was pretty desolate, but the seating at the stage was full of people watching the demonstration. We also tried to say hello to our friends in press relations, but like many people this late in the show, they already left.

Rumors just won't stop about the future of HD DVD, and while we try not to post all of them, some seem too believable to pass up. Our friend Bill Hunt, at the Digital Bits, -- still waiting on those permalinks, Bill -- is reporting that his "second to none" sources informed him that both Universal and Paramount are in the process of going blu. But don't bother asking 'em, because the same contracts that prevent them from switching now, prevent them from confirming the rumor. In addition, Bills sources tell him that while Paramount could make an announcement any day now, Universal's won't come until February -- at the earliest -- because "their contract period with the HD-DVD camp expires at the end of January."

[Via FormatWarCentral]

Frank DeMartin, general manager of Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, was nice enough to talk a little laser TV with us just before the unveiling of the new laser TV -- we're not exaggerating about the "little" part. While it all sounds fantastic, we were disappointed that he wasn't willing to even begin to satisfy our unlimited thirst for technical details. But he was confident that a laser TV could provide the ultimate in picture quality because "laser has the ability to hit color points that no other technology can." We understand his desire not to spill trade secrets, but any technical information beyond, "it's the best" would've been better than nothing. So while we don't know how the TV works, we do know that the principal makes sense; lasers offer the purest form of light, while at the same time use less power than other light sources. The problem of course is that the competition in the HDTV market is a fast moving target, and with the delays Mitsubishi has been dealing with, we wonder how competitively priced this new technology will be -- though Frank assured us that Mitsubishi's dominance in the red laser market will help . Frank says, "it'll be competitive with flat panel prices," and that's great and all, but price isn't the only factor needed to compete against flat panels, people like thin TVs and the laser TV isn't thin -- it's about as thin as a DLP. But regardless of being the same price, Mitsu thinks the superior picture quality will trump thin because "people want it flat, but they want it large too." Either way, we'll have to wait until some unknown time this year to see if the laser TV can live up to the hype, but with what we know right now, we're not sold just yet.