Podcast #1074: Matter Hubs and Sony Projectors

This week our show really matters! We feature a few of the newly certified Matter controllers and we talk about what projector we would consider if we were building out a dedicated home theater. Plus we read your emails and news of the week. News: Eve Announces Matter Updates for Eve Energy, Eve Motion and Eve Door & Window Samsung smart TV owners just got a welcome image upgrade Philips Hue Bridge is getting updated to Matter early next year Other: Cleaning a Record with Wood Glue Record lubricators & preservatives GruvGlide Amazon Official: Introducing Alexa Voice Remote Pro, includes remote finder, TV controls, backlit buttons, requires compatible Fire TV device Matter Hubs Hub M2 By Lumi United Technology Co., Ltd. The Aqara Hub M2 is a smart home control center. It can be connected with a WiFi or Ethernet network, and supports interaction and connection with Aqara Zigbee accessories. It also has an IR remote control function, which can add and manage the control of different IR devices. The Aqara Hub M2 allows you to control your Aqara accessories more conveniently. It can also bridge the Zigbee accessories to Matter to realize the interconnection of devices between different ecological platforms. Company Website Smart Wired Gateway Pro By Tuya Global Inc. As the core of the IoT connection, the wired Matter gateway is the first gateway released by Tuya that supports Matter. It supports the communication protocol of Cable+Zigbee+Thread, that is, the uplink Ethernet connects to the cloud, and the downlink supports both Zigbee (compatible with the original Zigbee device ecology of Tuya) and Thread (Matter over thread) sub-devices. This gateway has powerful localized management capabilities and high stability of multi-device control. It can be connected to all devices such as home automation, smart energy and home security systems to provide users with an intelligent control experience. Company Website DIRIGERA hub for smart products By IKEA of Sweden The hub is the bridge between your smartphone and your connected products LG ThinQ By LG Electronics Discover an easier way of smart home life with LG ThinQ. With LG ThinQ app, you can manage all your LG smart appliances and IoT devices in one place. More Info … webOS TV By LG Electronics LG Smart TV with Matter support will help users register and control Matter enabled home appliances around the TV. Users can maintain the list of Matter enabled devices around, and control using home dashboard application pre-installed on TV. Company Website Philips Hue Bridge By Signify The brains of the Philips Hue smart lighting system, the Hue Bridge allows you to connect and control up to 50 lights and accessories. Simply plug it in and use the Hue app to set routines, timers, custom light scenes, and more. It’s the Philips Hue Bridge that unlocks it all — including Matter. The Hue Bridge will support Matter with a software update, making all existing and new Hue lights and accessories automatically Matter enabled too (except the Hue Sync Box and dial of the Tap dial switch). Sony Projectors Something to Consider for Your Home Theater  Sony recently announced three new projectors (VPL-XW7000ES, VPL-XW6000ES and the VPL-XW5000ES)  which range in price from $27K at the high end and $6K for the 5000ES. All  three are SXRD panels with native 4K resolution. All three use the X1 Ultimate image processing. And all three use a laser light source that should last more than ten years if you watch your projector five hours a day.   A typical projector uses a lamp that would need to be replaced ten times in the time the Sony laser would last. They typically cost $50 to $100 depending on your projector, so over time this adds up! Plus the laser is much brighter so if you want to watch on a larger screen or in a room with ambient light these projectors have the chops to do so.  We have not seen these projectors in person but we have seen the previous versions when we were invited to a presentation at Sony Pictures in Culver City. What we saw at that time was quite impressive and those did not have the X1 Ultimate processor. If I (Ara) were building a dedicated theater today it would include the 5000ES. But only because I can’t afford the 6000 or 7000.