Five Things To Help You Watch The Olympics

19 days, 30 disciplines, 302 gold medals, 12 hours ahead of the US and eight hours ahead of the UK. The Beijing Olympics has arrived. Is your home theater system ready for the challenge? We think we might just have the tools to help your home theater get the gold.

Fuwa are fine but how fantastic is your home theater system?

The Olympics is an event of such massive proportions that Olympic-sized is a synonym for gigantic

To push the hyperbole meter up even further in 2008 Jacques Rogge, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee, promised that this year’s event would be the biggest and the best ever. And with venues being spread across three cities many were inclined to agree with him.

The opening ceremony was a prime example.

It ran one hour over time involved a cast of thousands (1000 of which was the Chinese Olympic team), lights, pyrotechnics, flying kung fu, tai chi, people from all 55 minorities, heroes from the Sichuan earthquake, CCP members, small children, fireworks all through Beijing, lots and lots of red and the Chinese national anthem….twice.

The only way you could ever conceivably see something similar ever again is by watching a couple of Zhang Yi Mo (imdb.com/name/nm0955443/) movies back to back. The tai chi scene certainly looked like the flower drum scene in House Of The Flying Daggers (imdb.com/title/tt0385004/).

Unfortunately, thanks to the time delay, if you live in Europe or the US you’re probably going to be watching the entire event through one bloodshot eye if you want to catch everything live.

So, if you want to stay fresh through the event and not have an aneurysm from over-stimulation you’re going to need some tools for your home theater to help you get the job done.

Here’s some of the items we think will make watching the Olympics an enjoyable and manageable experience:

Universal Satellite TV Receiver for PC -DVB-S

Staying up to watch an event might be exciting for the first day, but the morning after certainly is a struggle. And we’ve got 19 potential days of it ahead of us.

This programmable Universal satellite TV receiver will certainly remove that problem. It’s incredibly easy to program, and will automatically record the events you want to watch when it’s set up.

It’s designed for the PC too so a bit of sneaky event watching at work is a distinct possibility (provided your boss doesn’t see you of course).

HD Wireless Media Center With Hard Disc And WiFi PC Connection

So now you’ve got the feed you want to get it to the TV… this is just the device to do it. With a connection that’s so simple it’s almost child’s-play to hook up, and the ability to install a 500GB hard drive to store the special events your home theater will become the high-tech jewel of the house.

24ghz Wireless Audio-Video Infrared Remote Transmission Set

If media centers aren’t your game or you want to spread the event over two TVs (potentially necessary if NZ is playing Australia in the hockey) you’re going to want this gadget. It’ll transfer a signal up to 16 meters meaning you can put bitter rivals in two rooms altogether.

Superb LCD Home Theatre Media Projector With HDMI And DVBT

If your crowd is more of a friendly bunch and you live in a house where the walls are predominately white (are there any other kind in rented apartments?) then a projector might be a better option. This one will plug into your computer or TV has an analog and digital tuner built in and puts out fantastic pictures… sweet.

UPnP High Definition Media Server Wireless Media Streaming

Why limit yourself to just the networks when there’s a whole world of coverage out there on the internet. There’s a good chance most of it involves cute pets or Olympic event bloopers if its on YouTube, here’s one channel at least (youtube.com/user/BeijingOlympics2008). The UPnP High Definition Media server will let you catch that on the big screen too, all thanks to wireless streaming.

Watching the Olympics is an achievable goal… even with the home theater system you currently have… with just a little help from Chinavasion.