If you're looking for a Media Center Extender that can do a smidgen more than your average 360, HP just announced a brand new option for you. The MediaSmart Receiver does the usual MCE business (actually, it's an
Extender for Windows Media Center, meaning it can do DivX and XviD), in addition to playing H.264, MPEG-2, AAC, having built-in 802.11a/b/g/n, a Pocket Media Drive bay, and all the outputs you'll need to get the thing up and running (component, HDMI with HDCP). And, of course, it'll stream you media via DLNA / UPnP servers, play it off the drive or USB ports, as well as switching modes o HP's own media interface, just in case you're not into the Extender experience (or don't rely on an XP or Vista box to deal with your media). No pricing intel just yet, but expect a Spring release. Of course, if you wanted to get a small Media Center Extender with a hard drive, USB, and high def outputs, there are a few
decent alternatives out there.
posted Jan 3rd 2008 12:31AM
This looks good on a spec sheet I but I don't trust Media Extenders until I try them. So far, only the AppleTV has been able to stream media wirelessly with any level of service and has an interface that wasn't designed by Romanian programmers. But the AppleTV falls short in many other areas.
I believe Media Extenders will be common place within a few years. I hope HP has got it right.
I currently use my Xbox 360 as a media center extender for all TV viewing. It's a great setup, and in my opinion, Media Center has the next best UI to TiVo.
The only annoying part of this setup is the startup. It takes about 1 minute after pressing the power button on the remote for the Xbox 360 to boot up, launch the Media Center Extender, and connect to my computer. This is unlike TiVo, which is instantly available as soon as you turn on your TV. Does this new generation of media extenders address this problem?
I use my PS3's for everything and with Blu-ray and the DVD upscaling it's hard to look at media center PCs anymore.
I use a PS3 and XBox 360 for (wireless) media streaming. This seems like a nice HP product, but I doubt it would give me an edge over the two consoles' media capabilities. Still, the tech guy in me is interested.
Well, this looks promising.. As for the Xbox 360: I'm using this as it was the only v2 extender available. The boeing-like-fan-noise of the 360 in my opinion is terrible. It kills the silence in your room. No more silent scene's from any movie. There's always that 100db blowing fannoise. I don't play games at all and will ditch the 360 once this baby comes available! Now all we need is DVB HDTV tuners (in Europe) for MCE and MKV support!
Thanks
A useful feature would be the ability to pull digital cable off of the media center PC's hard disk onto the pocket media drive, and then play it back on the extender. This would be useful both for backup purposes and also to avoid the network bandwidth problems that plague wireless media streamers. I have a feeling that the CableCard powers that be might not like that idea, though.
Those pocket media drives are such a joke. First of all, only HP computers can use them, and only a few of those even have the drive bays, and second, I've never even seen one in stores!