Niveus Media is rolling out a new storage device for custom home theater installers based upon the Microsoft Windows Home Server platform. It is called the Niveus Storage Server – Cargo Edition.

The Cargo is scalable to hold up to 16TB of data in one server, with the ability to add more to a home network as necessary. It is housed in a custom-designed, 3U rack-mountable chassis, measuring 18.5″ in depth, marking what Niveus says is “the most compact storage server in the custom electronics industry.”

If there is one common truth with home theaters — other than lots of wires — it’s the multiple remotes that come along with them. You need one remote to change the TV channel, one to control the volume on your amp and one to control your HTPC or DVD player. It’s enough to blow the minds of many home theater users.

One of the items most home theater owners buy quickly is a universal remote control to eliminate the hoard of remotes sitting on the table. Gyration has introduced a new universal remote called the Air Music Remote with MotionSense that goes one-step further than the typical universal remote.

Epson announced their latest addition to the MovieMate line up, the MovieMate 55. The 55 model will have the same WVGA (854 x 480) resolution as the 50 model, but with a brighter 1200 ANSI lumens. The MovieMate 55 will also have a built-in DVD player inside the projector, which will play standard DVDs and CDs. If you want HD quality you can connect an external player.

It’s able to display an image up to 150 inches, diagonally, from a projection distance of less than 15 feet, making it an ideal portable to take movie night with you wherever you go. It also sports 8 watt stereo speakers with Dolby 5.1 Digital DTS technology for the best sound possible. The MovieMate 55 is already available for purchase on the Epson website and will retail for $699.

Another Samsung flat panel line up riding the waves of the consumer electronics company’s big annoucements last week is the Series 7 Plasma HDTVs. They will be available in August in 50-inch, 58-inch and 63-inch screen sizes (model numbers: PN50A760, PN58A760 and PN63A760), pricing around $2,800, $4,500 and $5,500, respectively.

The main highlights of the Series 7 displays include the hint of red blended into the outer edges of the artsy panels, 1080p resolution and Internet-based content provided by USA Today. You can get the full details after the jump.

Samsung last week, besides rolling out some Series 8 flat panels, also introduced  its new flagship Series 9 LED-backlit LCD HDTVs. These models are the 46-inch LN46A950 and 55-inch LN55A950, priced around $3,200 and $4,200, respectively.

These new Series 9 panels from Samsung make use the company’s “LED SmartLighting” technology, offers consumers a combination of LED and 120Hz technologies. This reportedly results in a “1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio for a crisp, full HD 1080p picture.” This HDTVs also sport a bit of an art touch via the patterned bezel with charcoal gray accent.

Samsung has done a rather unique spin on the whole sound bar in front of the flat panel thing, unveiling the other day a sound bar which doubles as a self-contained DVD system. It is called the Samsung HT-X810 and pricing is said to be around $700.

The Samsung HT-X810 is, according to Samsung, a virtual 5.1-channel system which incorporates an upconverting DVD player and FM tuner. It makes use of 5.8 GHz technology to connect with the included wireless subwoofer and also incorporates Bluetooth so one can stream from Bluetooth-enabled mobile devices and home theater components.

Samsung is kicking out another home theater in a box system which sports an included Blu-ray Disc player. This one is called the Samsung HT-BD2E and pricing will be at around $800.

The Samsung HT-BD2E, which will be available in August, joins two similar systems Samsung already offers. This particular system reportedly offers the same quality features as the others while also offering a more “user friendly” 5.1-channel design. It includes your four typical statellite speakers, a center channel and a passive subwoofer.

Do you feel like you already have the ultimate geek home theater room? What might take it beyond that, you ask? How about your own ticket booth? If charging your guests to see a movie at your house sounds like a nice way to finance the monthly payments on your setup, Bass Industries has a couple of ticket booths you’ll want to check out.

Two ticket booths seem to make the current Bass line up - a regular and a deluxe model. The regular one includes an illuminated header, optional curtain background image and is available in a variety of finishes and curtain colors. The deluxe model adds to this, it seems, by just looking more classy.

Samsung had a little mid-year coming out party yesterday as it unveiled a bunch of new flat panels and associated home theater gear. One of these upcoming releases is the new Series 8 850 and Series 8 860 LCD HDTVs, pricing between around $2,700 and $3,500.

Four models make up the Series 8 850 and 860, consisting of two each 45.9- and 52-inch televisions. All units will be available in September and unique features include a slim, narrow bezel with a touch of color around the edges and support for RSS feeds from USA Today. For full details, check out the press release after the jump.

Onkyo yesterday made some new product annoucements associated with mid-year releases. These new products include two mid-price home theater receivers and two packaged home theater systems. The Onkyo TX-SR706 receiver is now available around $900.  HT-S7100 and HT-S6100 systems are also currently available around $900 and $800 respectively. The TX-SR806 will price around $1,100, and it will be shipping in mid August.

Highlights of this new gear include both receivers being THX certified and including the new THX Loudness Plus audio processing technology for improved low-volume-level listening and the home theater systems being seven-channel. You can get full details after the jump.

SIM2 is showing off this week a new home theater projector for those who are a little more on a budget. It is still a little expensive, but if you have around $5,000 to spare the new Domino D60 can be yours.

The SIM2 Domino D60 is a single-chip DLP projection system is based upon the latest 1080p DarkChip3 0.95-inch DMD chipset from TI. It does all video resolutions up to 1080p and includes on-board processing for handling aspect ratios. The contrast ratio is said to be greater than 10,000 to 1.

During the summer several local parks in my area have movies that you can watch outside for free. If the idea of movies outside appeals to you; but you don’t want to have to sit around watching with a bunch of stinky, sweaty strangers Open Air has exactly what you need with its new backyard home theater kits.

The kit is called the CineBox Home and comes with everything you need for showing movies in your backyard. Options for either a 10-foot or 12-foot inflatable screen are available. In addition to the screen the kits also include the other gear you need to get started.

If your home theater is anything like mine you have a HD satellite box, PS3, Wii, Xbox and a few other items all trying to connect to the two available HDMI ports and other connectors on my TV. Then there is the problem of all the wires, which my wife seems to complain about with far too much frequency.

Belkin has a device that will go on sale in late October that will take care of both these problems called the FlyWire. The FlyWire comes in two versions with the normal FlyWire coming in October and the FlyWire R1 coming in Q1 2009.

Think about your home entertainment library for a moment. How many GBs of storage do you need for all of your digital media? Don’t have enough and need a few TB for your content? Intest seems to have a new 15 Terabyte NAS solution, called the Intest TeraRAID XV-NAS.

The Intest TeraRAID XV-NAS, priced at around $15,000 for the 15TB solution or $11,000 for 7TB, exists to host every illegally copied or downloaded movie and song track you’ve ever added to your collection. This monster of a NAS device includes 15 hot swappable bays in a RAID 6 configuration. The server is pre-loaded with Seagate hard drives designed for multi-streaming video applications.

Epson’s got a new fully-integrated, high-end home entertainment system ready for the marketplace just in time for the upcoming Olympics. It is called the Ensemble HD Cinema System and you’ll find it pricing around $7,000 for a 1080p system and $5,000 for a 720p version.

The Epson Ensemble HD Home Cinema System consists of a number of components. These include a PowerLite 3LCD HD multimedia projector, a 100-inch motorized screen which expands from the front channel, ceiling mounted speaker system, an A/V controller with built-in DVD player, speaker system, 150 watt subwoofer and a universial remote.