Emtec announces Movie Cube -R multimedia hard drive

It looks like Emtec is continuing to branch out from its media-based roots, with the company now following up its recently-announced PMP with its new Movie Cube -R "multimedia hard drive." In addition to offering ample amounts of storage, this one boasts both video-in and video-out ports to hook it up to your TV, letting you record and view content without ever touching a PC (a remote control is included to help in that process). You can also, of course, hook the device up to your PC if you like, either by USB or Ethernet, with a memory card slot also provided to let you offload photos from your digital camera. As far as format support goes, you can look for all the usual suspects, including MP3, WMA, and OGG audio, along with MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, and Xvid video. While the image above looks suspiciously polished, Emtec assures us that the real deal will be rolling out next month in capacities from 160GB to 500GB (or without a hard drive, if so choose), with prices starting at £150 (or about $300).

[DG @ Aug 29th 2007 2:35PM]

Woah -- what kind of TV connections? Composite, or DVI/HDMI?

What a terrific idea, actually. I would much, much rather buy one of those instead of a dedicated computer for my TV, which was the initial intent. As a media server, it seems like an easy way to put content on your television without monkeying around with changing resolution, taking up space, etc. And for $300!

[Victor @ Aug 29th 2007 3:01PM]

according to the product sheet on the site, it has composite and component out. uses mpeg2 for encoding and hd recording times are
VIDEO recording mode
Mode 80 GB HDD 120GB HDD 160GBHDD
HQ 16hrs 24hrs 33hrs
SP 32hrs 48hrs 66hrs
LP 48hrs 72hrs 99hrs
EP 64hrs 96hrs 132hrs
SLP 96hrs 144hrs 198hrs

here are some more specs

Language : 6 Multi-language support
Super Slim size : 203 x164,5 x 53 mm
Operation system : Linux
Buttons : Power/ Copying/Recording/MP3 Playing /Menu/
(Pal/NTSC)/Mute/ Enter/Cancel/Left/Right/U
USB Supported : USB HDD - USB Host - Other USB devices
Card supported : SD/MMC/MS
Content format supported: HD JPEG/MPEG
VOB/MPG/DAT/AVI/DIVX/ MPEG-2 TS
MP3/OGG/WMA
Maximum number of files recognizable: 9999 files
Compression rate: between 32 kbps and 320 kbps
JPEG/BMP
Maximum number of pictures recognizable: 9999 files
VIDEO CODECS supported: MPEG-1/MPEG-2
MPEG-4 : DivX 5.x/DivX 4.x/DivX 3.x/XviD
AUDIO CODECS supported: MP2/MP3 /OGG Vorbis/WMA Standard/PCM/DTS/AC3
Subtitle formats supported: SRT, SMI, SSA
Recordable devices supported: Built in HDD
USB HDD

[scaught @ Aug 29th 2007 3:25PM]

So it is sort of like AppleTV, except, useful.

[Victor @ Aug 29th 2007 3:35PM]

and it plays many more formats!

[dementia @ Aug 29th 2007 3:37PM]

This would be great to connect to the headless bittortent box I'm building over the weekend. Download the files to the external drive hooked up to the TV and they're good to go...

[James @ Aug 29th 2007 3:48PM]

I'm just going to ask. Are they implying you can record TV content, like on a Tivo?

[gfar @ Aug 29th 2007 4:10PM]

500GB is tiny these days.
I demand 10TB and the ability to play HD x264 .mkv files.

[Randomness @ Aug 29th 2007 5:19PM]

It looks like you can upgrade the HDD, and it supports external drives (which would probably be cheaper getting them from newegg or after rebate at Fry's, than the price they would charge for a higher capacity device)

.mkv support would be great.

Firewire and/or external sata would be awesome.

[Andrew Cummings @ Aug 29th 2007 5:20PM]

It's a step in the right direction but it needs wifi and it would be good to know if it outputs and records in HD.

[fraggle_rocker @ Aug 29th 2007 7:24PM]

I really like the direction they are heading in with these boxes.

[Bill @ Aug 29th 2007 9:48PM]

Needs a wireless connection so you can download all your leeched files directly to the drive.

[strider_mt2k @ Aug 29th 2007 10:43PM]

Me wantee!

[Dr. Frankenshtein @ Aug 30th 2007 1:17AM]

So, it is attached to the TV and... the network? A PC? You get the files on it through HOW?

[Randomness @ Aug 30th 2007 2:26AM]

If you would actually read the brief summary above, it says it has USB and ethernet connections.

Interesting to see if, since it runs linux, how much it can be hacked to have wireless and more. Too bad I don't see h264 on the list, probably not enough processing power for that level of encoded video.

[guest @ Sep 12th 2007 1:50AM]

You don't need to hack it. It already has a wireless driver inside. It's pity that the AP now cannot utilize it.
Don't ask me how I know this. :>

[Dr. Frankenshtein @ Aug 30th 2007 1:23AM]

Ok, I found the like to explain it more, but now it just seems it is a HDD VDR. OK, can be useful but seems too narrowcasting to quench the fires of my desires. I will be a nice complement to my 1080i projector though. The backyard movies can now have a larger source than DVDs.

[JC @ Aug 30th 2007 8:34AM]

I have this one:
http://mediasonicinc.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=48

They're great, and play just about everything. I'm surprised more people don't know these things already exist and are on the market already.

[sakaree @ Oct 23rd 2007 5:04PM]

but, can it be accesed from the pc to copy files on it?

[david @ Feb 18th 2008 9:31AM]

up graded software supports wireless but need a special dongle from emtec any body know where to get one

[giorgaan @ May 21st 2009 6:45PM]

can anubody tell me where i can buy this? Thank you.