Gadgetory

this week on the cnet tech review new home theater gear from Sony and Panasonic use your ps3 to stream music and videos from your computer to your TV the Chevy Cruze may put the brakes on your plans to buy a hybrid and printing on the go courtesy of HP it's all coming up right now hi everyone I'm Molly wood and welcome to the cnet tech review where we collect our hottest videos of the week and tell you what's good and what's bad in the world of tech plus offer some unique tech wisdom in the form of the bottom line let's start with the good this week the good is all about video shooting video playing it back streaming videos you get the idea first up a new blu-ray player from Sony here's Matt Mackowiak with a first look hey I'm Matthew miskovic at cnet com and we're going to take a look at the sony bdp s 580 blu-ray player which is currently selling for about one hundred and seventy dollars like most players it has a glossy black finish and although you can't see any buttons from afar there are actually a few little nubs along the bottom for basic functions like eject and play there's also a handy USB port on the front and there's even a second USB port around the back the included remote is a simple design that we liked and you can also control the player with Sony's remote app which is available for both iOS and Android the coolest thing about the app is that you can use the keyboard to search and streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Instant which you can't do on any other player we've seen the BD PS 580 has the standard set of features we expect at this price including built-in Wi-Fi and 3d blu-ray support it also has the most extensive suite of streaming media services of any blu-ray player we've tested including netflix amazon instant hulu plus voodoo pandora and slacker while we love all the services we weren't as thrilled with the way Sony's user interface displays them instead of the standard netflix interface we've seen on all the other players sony has its own interface and unfortunately the cover art is small and sometimes it can be hard to read the main user interface isn't that great either especially when you have to scroll past tons of less popular services to get to something like voodoo now realm back you'll see the a/v inputs including the HDMI output and the coaxial audio output we put the player through our full series of image quality tests and it was an excellent performer however these days nearly every blu-ray player has basically the same image quality especially on blu-ray movies so it shouldn't be a big factor when you're making a buying decision when we tested the speed of the player we found the Sony is faster than the average 2011 bluray player especially when it comes to loading Netflix and navigating movies however it's not quite as fast as loading blu-ray discs so you'll want to look at the speedy panasonic DMP BDT to 10 if you want fast load times so overall the sony bdp s 580 is a solid blu-ray player with built-in Wi-Fi and more streaming services than all competing blu-ray players that we've tested but the trade-off is you'll have to put up with its clunky interface I'm Matthew miskovic and this is the sony bdp s 580 of course to really enjoy the picture quality of a good blu-ray player you need to have it connected to a good TV and that's where this new set from Panasonic comes in very good here's David Kazmaier with the details hi I'm David Katz meijer with cnet and I'm sitting next to the panasonic tc-p 55 VT 30 this TV is also available in a 65 inch series this is Panasonic's highest end television for 2011 it's a lot of anticipation leading up to the release of this television it's the successor to the editor's choice our favorite TV from last year the VT 25 and in most ways this TV is a worthy successor it's the best performing television we touched it so far this year in terms of design Panasonic went back to its one sheet of glass on this model the single sheet covers both the frame and the screen itself for a sleek integrated look that we really do like on the downside it does have a thicker bezel than a lot of the other plasmas out there namely the ones from Samsung so the TV itself is less compact for the screen size but all told we do appreciate the thin depths as well it's a lot thinner than last year's models feature wise the VT 30 comes with all the bells and whistles that includes one pair of 3d glasses these are infrared glasses unlike the Bluetooth used by Samsung it does have a news power switch however so you can easily tell where the glasses are turned on and off and in generally felt they kept the sink very well despite being infrared the internet connectivity on this TV is also fully loaded Panasonic includes a Wi-Fi dongle there's no built-in Wi-Fi but you can plug in the dongle and get Wi-Fi connectivity without having to pay extra the viera connect suite is the same as featured on lower-end televisions panasonic includes netflix and amazon video on demand although it doesn't have youtube or hulu plus yet we do really like the layout of panasonic service all the things are easy to reach and you can arrange the thumbnails as you like there's also a VIERA Connect marketplace that includes a few apps and a couple of five dollar games from Gameloft as well as some merchandise like 3d glasses and USP keyboards and mice of course prices on that marketplace are pretty high at the moment picture adjustments on the VT 30 our extensive there's a couple of THX modes one for 3d and one for 2d those aren't very adjustable but the custom mode is it offers more settings than any TV we've tested so far unfortunately despite all those settings and custom we weren't able to achieve as accurate as a calibration as we hoped but THX itself is pretty darn accurate to begin with so we didn't miss them too much as I mentioned the top the VT 30 is the best picture quality of any TV we tested this year its strength is excellent deep black levels which are better than any of the other panasonic we've seen this year and also although a little bit brighter than previous years Panasonic's we don't expect that the CDs black levels will deteriorate although we'll keep testing them and let you know if they do color accuracy on the VT 30 and THX mode is extremely good although not quite as good as some of the best we've seen TV also has the ability to handle 1080p 24 sources correctly and it also has an improved anti-glare screen 3d performance of the VT 30 was also very good especially in THX mode which had accurate colors in very good shadow detail crosstalk on this TV was relatively infrequent although we did see a little bit more than we've seen on some of the best models that's a quick look at the panasonic VT 30 series and i'm david katz meijer you know you could actually just skip the blu-ray part and still get most of the same services directly on your TV but if you're going to spend that much on a TV that's another couple hundred bucks unless of course you already have a PlayStation ever since it came out the sony ps3 has continued to be one of our top-rated blu-ray players but did you know that you can also use it to stream media from any computer on your home network here's the always helpful Sharon Vaknin to show you how hey I'm Sharon Vaknin for cnet.com here with a how-to that will help you bring your tech full circle I'm a tech junkie so as much as I appreciate each one of my gadgets for what they are I also like to see them working together so today I'll show you how to stream music photos and videos from your Mac or PC to your Playstation and onto the big screen it's nice having everything in one place first make sure your ps3 is connected to your home network either wirelessly or hardwired with an ethernet cable once you're connected go to the settings menu network settings and then head down to media server connections and make sure it's enabled if you're on a PC download and install the latest version of Windows Media Player launch the player and go to the library menu and select add to library here you'll be able to add folders you want your windows media player and your ps3 to access these settings will depend on where you store your media then go back to the library menu and select media sharing check the box next to share media wait a few seconds and your ps3 will show up click it then allow and then ok we'll get to what to do next on your ps3 in a moment but first here's how to get things set up on a Mac Mac's don't have onboard support for this feature so you'll need to download an application called ps3 media server there are lots of programs like it but this was the only free one I found that does the same thing as the paid ones once its installed we'll need to tweak some of the settings go to navigation / share settings and uncheck everything in the thumbnail section this means that thumbnails won't show up on your ps3 but it'll mean faster loading time i also got errors when these options were enabled so let's keep it safe and keep them unchecked in the bottom section you'll need to add the folders you want available on the ps3 I added my entire hard drive but I also added shortcuts to my music folder workout videos and photos now had to transcoding settings and change the maximum bandwidth to 14 or 15 0 means an unlimited bitrate but that makes for a lot of live during playback a lower bitrate does lower the quality of your playback but that's the trade-off also if you don't have 5.1 surround sound hooked up to your TV go up to number of audio channels and change it to stereo now make sure you're connected to Wi-Fi on your Mac and then hit save then restart HTTP server now that we've got things set up on the back end your media is ready to be streamed to your ps3 go to your ps3 menu and head to photos videos or music your computer should show up as one of the servers but if it doesn't hit search for media servers if it's still not showing up double and triple check that you followed all my instructions to a tee and that your ps3 and computer are on the same network but if it does show up then you're set you'll need to be in the music menu to play music in the video menu to play your videos and in the photos menu to see your photos for music you have options for shuffling skipping repeating and more when you press the triangle button when a song is playing to keep the music playing in the background hit the home button on your controller instead of 0 and when you're viewing a photo hit the triangle button to see a slideshow of your images use r1 and l1 to move forward or backwards you can also copy your music videos and photos onto your ps3's hard drive by pressing the triangle when you're viewing a file just be aware of how much space you have left on your drive if you're still getting stuttering while you're listening to music or watching videos lower the bitrate in the settings we changed earlier again this will lower the quality but it beats not being able to watch at all as always if you have any questions come talk to me on my facebook page and if you have any ideas or how-to questions email how to at cnet com for cnet I'm Sharon Vaknin and I'll so you on the interwebs all that and you can still get services like Netflix and Hulu on your ps3 no matter what TV it's connected to and the best part it actually plays games wrapping up our video extravaganza this week is this week's top five cameras not cameras for shooting photos but still cameras that shoot great video but still shoot photos too nevermind Brian can explain using a video camera to shoot video sounds reasonable enough doesn't it except that's so 2009 I'm Brian Cooley with top 5 digital still cameras for shooting high def video according to the expertise of cnet's resident photo experts Lori Gruden and Josh Goldman now lots of cameras shoot HD video these days for that matter lots of smartphones do but this list of cameras is going to make you put your camcorder on eBay these are really good some are DSLRs there's a hybrid in there an advanced mega zoom but I'm also going to show you some pocket camera favorites for HD video as well so let's get started number five is the nikon d50 100 know one thing about this camera is best in class it's kind of a B student overall but overall it's real solid does nothing real poorly and exhibits relatively low autofocus noise when shooting video I bet you didn't think about that until you got into this whole idea also this camera can grab a long 20 minutes of hi-def video in a single gulp that's pretty good number four is the canon eos rebel t3i video and still image quality stands out on this guy as much as does the stupid rebel name but canon rebels have been great values from the beginning and this one's right in there and like many cameras in this list it can shoot all the way up to 1080p and 30 frames per second that's all you're ever going to need number three is the value King on the list this is the panasonic lumix dmc FZ 100 it's not a DSLR that lens doesn't come off bolt it on there but it's also not priced like a DSLR under 500 bucks and it's got a 24 x fixed zoom lens that can go wide enough for interiors or long enough for sports now this camera also shoots 1080p but we found its happier shooting slightly lower 720p which still looks great in the high def world and remember under 500 bucks oh and it's got a flip-out LCD number 2 is also a panasonic lumix this one is the DMC gh2 now we're back into interchangeable lenses with this guy and again excellent video quality at 10 ATP and 24 frames per second which is very filmic by the way its sensor can actually do 1080 and 60 frames per second really high-end stuff but it records video in the AVCHD format and that limits it back down to 24 p we also like the touchscreen interface on this camera and you can shoot 30 minutes of continuous video as long as you have enough battery life and storage capacity now before I bring you to our number one I promised you these three of our favorite point-and-shoot cameras for shooting high def video little pocket guys now these all max out at 720p but they do a really good job within that resolution which is no slouch they fit in your pocket of course none of them exceed 400 bucks and none of them scream I'm shooting now when you hold them which can really help you grab some of the best impromptu movies okay our number one best digital still camera for shooting high def video is the canon eos 5d mark two yeah i know you're saying yeah no kidding it's pushing twenty-seven hundred dollars without a lens but this camera is still a steal for what it does that's not a lot of money for something so good they actually shoot parts of the new hawaii five-o series with it this is what the pros are using out there it's got a full-frame sensor a stunning lens system to choose from and it's built like a rock you can actually call this an investment and not be wishfully thinking okay to see all the digital camera reviews from today's list and many others just go to cnet com click on digital cameras thanks to Lori and Josh and our digital imaging team and for more videos like this go to top 5 cnet com I'm Brian Cooley thanks for watching so now you're ready to pick up your camera start shooting videos put them on your computer and stream them to your TV when you're not busy watching blu-rays or playing games of course whew I feel like I accomplished something this week yeah me but we're not done yet it's time to take a break but we will be back for more tech review right after this welcome back to the cnet tech review our weekly video digest of all things good and bad we've seen here at cnet TV continuing on in the good alright this one has nothing to do with video it's all about the written word or more specifically the printed word if you work with a lot of documents and often find yourself out on the road with nowhere to print them it might be time to invest in one of these babies if you're a traveling professional that needs the convenience of a portable printer that really won't take up much room in your carry-on luggage well this device is your answer I'm just a new associate editor for cnet com this is your first look at the HP officejet 100 mobile printer so the goal of any mobile device is to pare down the machine to its small as possible form and the mobile 100 is just small enough to fit into a briefcase or carry-on bag the paper input tray at the bottom and the cover for the dual ink cartridges both fold neatly into the body of the printer and it weighs about the same as a 15-inch apple macbook laptop and that's with the lithium-ion rechargeable battery installed so you can print on a number of different kinds of paper types and sizes thanks to the adjustable slider here you can use the standard eight and a half by eleven sheet piece of paper or you can also go down to a three by five inch index card HP makes things even more convenient by adding built-in wireless Bluetooth and they encourage you to use it by not putting a USB cord in the box so if you want a wired connection you'll have to buy your own you can also print using the pic bridge USB port on the back but at HP strangely removes the media card slot that we saw on previous models which is a little bit inconvenient but this to ink cartridge printer is made for office documents and not quite so much photos anyway so we won't complain too much the HP officejet 100 may cost more than your average single-function printer but it makes improvements over previous models with a sleek design and improved output quality also the rechargeable battery and Bluetooth wireless give you the freedom to leave those messy cords at home and travel light so if your business depends on outputting jobs on the road the HP officejet 100 mobile definitely deserves your attention you can read more details like speed and quality test results in our full review on cnet com them but that's going to do it for me I'm Justin you you just took a first look at the HP officejet 100 mobile printer thanks for watching okay that's what they're calling a mobile printer these days I guess briefcases are a lot bigger than I thought they were and with that let's move on to the bed if you're like me you cannot stand having half a dozen keys sitting quietly in the bottom of your purse all day oh wait that doesn't bother me at all so I guess I won't be needing the keyport slide then if you're like me and you don't like sharp metal objects jingling around in your pocket scratching up your phone and ripping holes in your pants you may be looking for a way to manage your keychain I'm antuan goodwin and i've got a product here that can help you tame your wild keychain and up to six keys it's called the keyport slide now the ordering process for the keyport slide involves ordering the slide unit itself which is made of anodized aluminum and up to six key port blades these blankies can then be taken to your local locksmith to be cut to duplicate your keys which means you won't have to send your whole key chain off to keyport you then load the six blades into the slide and voila you've got your entire keychain and one rather solid block if you've got less than six keys to replace you can also order accessory blades that a day for gigabyte USB Drive a bottle opener or an LED flashlight to the keyport slides mix if you lose your slide the unit is etched with a unique identifier that can be registered at my key port calm with a reward giving a Good Samaritan both incentive and the means to return the unit to you that's pretty cool but at 50 bucks for the slide unit five dollars for each blade accessory blades starting at six bucks plus the cost of having your keys locally duplicated it's also a pretty big investment check out our complete evaluation of the key for slide over on cnet com to see if we think it's worth it until then I've been asked Juan goodwood cnet giving you your first look at the key port flies so let me get this straight it's expensive it's only good for a few items it probably won't work with many modern car keys and oh yeah it's expensive I'm gonna go ahead and stick to one of these totally fine let's wrap things up with this week's bottom line Brian coolies back with a look at the 2011 chevy cruze eco edition which might make you rethink whether it's time to get a hybrid it's a Chevy that might make you forget imports not to mention hybrids let's drive to 2011 chevy cruze eco and check the tech the 40-plus mpg club is rarified air and this is one of its few members 42 mpg on the highway that's better than a smart fortwo yet in a car that holds two times as many people but the technology in this guy mostly lives under the hood not in the dash now yes we're driving a skinny lean green eco car but the car makers all know you don't want the car to feel that way when you're in it so in here is a nice cabin GM and Ford and Chrysler have all been doing nice interior materials for a while now pretty much without exception and this guy shows that nice different textures good surfaces whether you like this sort of Darth Vader mask design as a matter of taste but everything is done well and feel solid with the one exception of this very strange dash panel seat insert and door insert material which i think is just stock on an eco and looks like a whore's drawers got stretched all around yet not really big on that here's your display it's the only one you're ever going to see there's no big color LCD nav available on this car so you're going to have this more basic sort of LCD monochrome deal it shows your AM and FM radio your XM radio no HD on this guy your other media options include a CD player here and then we've got an optional aux and USB under a tiny little door right there in the console and the sound comes out of six speakers of indeterminate type and wattage it's straightforward on that and there's no upgrade on the factory build sheet now without navigation yes but with navigation yes what I mean is you've got OnStar directions and connections that means this comes stock as just about every GM car does with the ability for you to call OnStar here get directions and they'll be downloaded to the car and you'll see them right down here on that helper screen basic directions you can also make cell phone calls here this is a calling service but bring your phone we have Bluetooth hands-free on this guy that is part of an option package not standard and that same package rolls in cruise control you see here and also audio controls in the steering wheel once the stuff yet probably wants so check that one off now note the shifter yes the 6-speed manual that's kind of your preferred default gearbox on this guide they've got a big green dot around the six the overdraw that's always overdrive on every manual gearbox I know but they call it eco gear which i guess is just a taller over drive on the freeway at 60 is turning about 1800 rpm ok now cruze eco has got a very special motor it's a little thing it's turbocharged 1.4 litre sidesaddle in line for it delivers 138 horsepower 148 diminutive foot-pounds of torque although being a turbo motor that torques kind of an elevated number so that really helps 0 to 60 is like a 10.2 second affairs car is not about being fast MPG is what it is all about 28 city42 highway with the six-speed manual with the Eco gear unless you get the automatic then you get a hell of a haircut on the highway MPG it comes down to 37 let's look at some of the technologies they're using here if you look in the very back you can see the electric power steering rack that takes drag off the engine here's the turbo down here notice it's integral in the exhaust manifold lighter smaller cheaper now down here in the lower grille you've got some louvers that shut I think during highway speeds or when you're at cruising because that cuts down some of the air disturbance flowing through the car and over here in the wheel wells we're taking a look at ultra low rolling resistance tires all of this adds up to the package that puts the eco ahead of a standard cruise oh yeah and don't forget the weight they shave 200 pounds off this guy over a similarly engine bay screws okay what's it like driving a 1.4 liter turbo in a decent sized car it's actually pretty good uh you never get this feeling of brawn it needs to be stroked and spun up all the time but that's just turbo motors for you especially small displacement ones the power comes on very smoothly feels pretty linear turbo lag is less of an issue here than in some bigger and the turbos I've driven the car feels it gets hewn from an ingot of aluminum I'm very impressed by the build quality and the overall balance you know for a taildragger it's got really nice road manners it's not a performance car but I'm on a twisty canyon road here some off camber sort of turn some of them are decreasing radius and only when you push it pretty hard do you feel those low-rolling-resistance tires kind of ballet around a little bit but not badly not for the kind of car it is I really enjoyed driving it I found it was just kind of fun and energizing is the right word the electric power steering is really nicely calibrated it doesn't have any sort of any sort of what switch in that some electric systems seem to have where you feel it kind of get lumpy or weirded places this one's always kind of linear and smooth the only thing I don't like is this shift light it's quite bright and it gets your attention and it's stupid I don't like its advice if you follow that light's advice you're driving around at thirteen hundred rpm all the time even when you're going up a grade I mean it's it's just stupid it loves the engine all the time so wish I could turn that stupid thing off but if you gotta live with it you gotta live with it and of course the great option on this car is that if you happen to be driving along and you meet a prostitute on the side of the road is missing her underwear you can fashion her a new pair from the dashboard no other car I know does that okay pricing now unlike a lot of hybrids the cruze eco starts cheap and eats cheap 19 22 by the car and of course the MPG is great a couple of packages you want to throw on it to get it seen that style well sort of one's called the convenience package it's going to give you back up sensors remote start and power driver's seat adjustments a few of them anyway the other one is a connectivity package it's only like five and a quarter and for that you get a whole lot of features the USB in the console steering wheel audio controls that's where you get bluetooth hands-free also is that package and it also rolls in cruise control that's about it for checking this guy up but you can do a lot in the aftermarket with the money you're going to save on gas the bottom line this week why can't echo be cooler I mean the cruise isn't going to win any prizes for design and you'd better know how to drive a stick if you really want to save every last drop of gas but okay okay it's good for the earth and that is good actually considering that the world's weather seems to be showing us that we could use a few more eco-friendly vehicles all right folks that's our show will be back next week with a brand new cnet tech review until then there are tons of great videos available every day at cnet TV com I'll see you next time and thank you for watching