media center

MvixUSA’s Home Theater PC Media Centers: HDHome S2 & S4

Mvix HDHomeMvixUSA has a new flagship product, the HDHome, which they’re positioning as the “ultimate dream box for today’s high definition homes.” The Mvix HDHome comes in 2 models, the S2 and S4, with the main difference being the limit in storage, the S2 holding up to 2TB while the S4 goes up to 4TB.

The HDHome runs Windows 7 Media Center and can connect with the rest of your HD AV setup and home network via HDMI out, GB Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, Optical Audio Out, USB 2.0, Bluetooth 2.0.

The HDHome also includes a Blu-Ray drive, an ATSC TV Tuner, an all-in-one card reader and a remote control.

Buy now!
Prices (starting at): HDHome S2: $999, HDHome S4: $1599
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Western Digital’s WD TV Live plays/streams full 1080p HD, music and photos and Internet radio

wd tv liveWestern Digital is still in the media player game, and their latest model improves upon the last one. The WD TV Live plays back HD video, music & photos whether they’re on your computer, your USB drives, or the Net on your TV.

It still comes in an ugly little black box with what looks like an elf’s remote.  One nice feature is that you can connect as many USB drives as you want to it for practically unlimited storage.

WD TV Live can connect to the Net to play back YouTube videos, Flickr photos and stream music from Pandora and Live365.com.

Like the Netgear EVA2000, this is a pretty inexpensive media player, and would be a decent introduction to the media streamer gadget.

Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $119.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

CES 2010: Boxee and D-Link Announce Boxee Box Media Center

boxee box by d-linkBoxee has teamed up with D-Link to produce the Boxee Box, a hardware version of their popular software. The Boxee Box brings TV shows, movies and other Internet content to your TV without a PC a la many other media center boxes.

One of the main ideas behind Boxee is to eliminate the pain of finding and sourcing content; Boxee chooses much of the content and organizes it for you.

Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite EVA9150

Netgear hasn’t given up on their networked multimedia devices, even after a somewhat shaky start with their EVA700. One of their latest models, the EVA9150 features video, audio and photo streaming from your PC or Mac or even your NAS to your (HD)TV.

It includes an HDMI port and can upconvert to 1080p, already support WiFi-N, and includes 500GB of storage. It can also reach out directly to the Internet and pull back Flickr images, RSS feeds, YouTube video (of course) and Internet radio.

Among the multitude of formats it supports: AVI, DivX, MP3, MPEG4, MKV, FLAC, AAC and WMV.

Would have liked to see GB Ethernet, but hey, that’s what the next model is for, right?

Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $399.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Verismo VuNow VN1000HD streams Internet video to your TV

Mountain View company, Verismo Networks has just rolled out its appliance for viewing video from the Internet on your TV. The VuNow VN1000HD is a tiny device that fits in the palm of your hand and can output (via HDMI if you’d like) 480i, 480p and 720p (HD) video to your TV.

It naturally includes an Ethernet port so you can hook it into your home network. Verismo has also included the ability to play and watch/listen to the media (video, audio and photos) that’s on your PC or NAS as well.

The view Internet video feature certainly sounds like the Sling.com site which is accessible via your Slingbox as well. But essentially, this is a Media Center device a la Mvix, Neuros, AppleTV, Windows Media Center or any of the myriad of other such devices.

Pick up a box for $148 at Amazon.

Gimme!

More info from the manufacturer
Price: $148.00
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

CES 2009: Dlink’s All In One Router and More

Dlink has announced the Xtreme N Storage Router. This router is touted as a “All In One” router and comes in an impressive little package sporting a small picture frame, wireless N router, 4 1GB ethernet ports, SATA drive bay, and 2 USB ports for hard drive or print sharing. The router allows users to share and view as well as backup data such as music, video and photos on your network. There is even a built-in FTP server allowing you to share and access the files over the Internet. This will be available for around $300.

Also being shown was a 2-bay Network Video Recorder (NVR) supporting all D-Link cameras. You can remotely manage and view cameras connected on your network using various recording methods included scheduled or motion capture. The NVR supports 2 SATA drives in RAID 0 or 1 format. Two cameras were being shown including a pan and tilt for $299 and another camera that support N wireless or wired for $179 and $149 respectively.

For consumers, Dlink now provides a Network Storage Enclosure supporting iSCSI in RAID 0, 1 Standard and JBOD Support. You can transfer files over the Internet using ftp with SSL encryption.

Finally, a couple not-ready-for-production products were displayed including a SideStage 7″ USB LCD Monitor and an Ethernet to Coax Adapter. No pricing or availability were given for those products.

Digeo’s latest Moxi DVR is HD

moxi-hd-dvr Digeo isn’t done yet. Their latest Moxi DVR does HD. But for $800, it’s gotta do more than that, much, much more. It has a 500GB hard drive that holds about 75 hours of HD content. The interface is award winning and Moxi is really meant to be more of a media center.

You can access content from your PC as well as from the Web, stream music and video to your TV, access an online TV and movie guide, even play games.

It has 2 HD tuners and you can also hook in additional hard drives for even more storage.

Buy Now!

Price: $799.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

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