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The Moxi Summer update brings the Moxi Mate, SDV support and more
All the Moxi owners out there should be happy to learn that Digeo intends to keep its promise by continually releasing updates to Moxi HD DVR on a regular basis. The latest Summer update should hit your Moxi in the next few days and brings some of the more anticipated features -- no still no TiVoToGo like functionality -- like the grid guide pictured above, support for the Moxi Mate and Switched Digital Video (SDV). First up is SDV support, but while adding the ability to tune channels delivered via SDV is appreciated, it really falls under the "about time" category. Next is the new Moxi Mate, which holds more promise but just because it starts shipping tomorrow for $399, doesn't mean it will deliver. As it stands now, the Mate requires that you bring your own network connection to your second TV -- so no MoCA support like FiOS and other cable operator DVRs work -- and it doesn't completely replace the STB in your bedroom because it doesn't do Live TV and you can't schedule recordings with it. You can at least pick up where you left off watching a record without transfering it first, but the included remote can't control your TV's channel or input, so you're going to need a universal remote or you're going to make life in the bedroom as complicated as some living rooms. Our last gripe about the Mate (yes there's more) is the fact that Digeo only recommends running one Mate at a time with a hard limit of three concurrent streams. The good news though is that existing Moxi HD DVR customers can pick up a Mate for $199, and there're even package deals and payment plans to lesson the blow. The breath of fresh air coming with this update is the fact that up to 6TB of external storage is now supported and DLNA support is improved with added codec and containers like H.264 in MKV files -- although obviously MKV can support all kinds of codecs that may or may not also be supported.
PopcornHour's latest C-200 media box is Blu-ray (& anything else) ready
The followup to the popular PopcornHour media streamer series has finally been announced, and the list of features makes it look worth the wait. Revealed in a post on the Networked Media Tank forums the C-200 contains an upgraded Sigma SMP8643 667 Mhz processor, HDMI 1.3 out, two SATA slots, a drive bay for mounting your own HDD, DVD or even Blu-ray drive (requires internal HDD or 1GB USB stick) and supports a list of networking standards, codecs and containers far too long to recount here. At first glance, only DivX jumps out as missing from the list, have a look at the forum posting and let us know if you spot. Of course, there's already a video unboxing available, seen after the break (along with the copied list of specs) or check out the full Google translated early hands on impressions from HomeTheater.co.il. The most pressing questions of when will these be available and for how much, will have to be answered at another time.[Via HomeTheater.co.il & Geek Tonic]
ASUS O!Play HDP-R1 media player won't likely get an O-face
We knew it was coming, now the ASUS O!Play is official. The HDP-R1 HD Media Player supports HD video playback in a variety of codecs including MPEG1/2/4, H.264, VC-1, and RM/RMVB in a multitude of packages including .mp4, .mov, .avi, .divx, and .mkv just to name a few. FLAC and OGG audio? Yup, no problem. The box connects to your display over HDMI or composite A/V with an option for optical digital audio for multi-channel setups. Media can be slung off a single USB 2.0/eSATA combo port, second vanilla USB 2.0 jack, or streamed over fixed Ethernet if you prefer to keep your content on the other side of the house. Sorry, no 802.11n because, you know, everyone's home is wired with Cat 5 (riiiight). No price or release date given; but it would have to be cheap and soon for us to be even remotely interested.
DivX fills in the gaps and adds MKV support to Windows 7
Windows 7 comes with many new under the hood enhancements that address some sore spots for Media Center fans, but we don't think any hurt as much as the lack of native codec support. The most popular file format online today is without a doubt MKV, but many don't understand that it isn't a codec at all, but instead a container. In fact it's a container that can hold just about any combination of video and audio, but most notably H.264 video and AC3 audio. Now the kicker in Windows 7 is that although it natively supports H.264 and AC3, it still can't play MKV files. Up until now enthusiasts have been installing the Haali splitter on the Windows 7 Beta, which has kinda worked. We say kinda, because for whatever reason the Haali Media Splitter exposes the H.264 stream in an MKV file as AVC1 and not H.264. What this means is that Windows doesn't realize it can decode the content natively and when you try to play one of these files on an Extender -- for example -- the video is unnecessarily transcoded. So now that you understand the problem, it appears DivX has the solution. The latest DivX Tech Preview features a Media Foundation -- the replacement for DirectShow in 7 -- component that will demux MKV files and allow the video and audio streams to be decoded with native Windows 7 codecs. Well, that's the theory anyways, we'll be following the comments closely to see how this turns out in practice.
JVC XV-PB1 Blu-ray player surprises with 1080p MPEG-4 MKV support
The first Blu-ray player to come to the U.S. from JVC, the XV-PB1, hasn't received a lot of hype since its CES reveal, but that might change now that it appears to be one of the first supporting MKV playback, following the Oppo BDP-83 and LG BD390. EHD reader Bill picked one up on the humble and lets us know he's had no problems playing 1080p video with DTS audio from a burned DVD. The manual on JVC's website indicates official MKV and AVCHD support, but surprisingly, not DivX although the spec sheet on the same website says it does. We're reached out to JVC to confirm what buyers can expect from the XV-PB1, but with MKV on top of BD-Live, network streaming from PCs and reportedly extremely fast load times this $299 player might reshuffle the list of most desired Blu-ray hardware.
DivX 7 for Mac now available
Coming a scant few months after the PC version, DivX 7 for Mac is now available, putting all the h.264 enabled power into your hands, whether it's for good or evil is your choice. That reminds us, we're still looking around for those DivX Plus HD Certified devices (beyond the DivX Connected beta) featuring MKV and many other forms of compatibility, but for now, this will have to do.[Via 123MacMini]
How to automatically download and import HD to Windows Media Center
We don't try to hide how much we like Windows Media Center around here but that doesn't mean we hesitate to complain when warranted, and one of our biggest complaints has always been the limited codec support -- especially when it comes to Extenders. Well we're happy to say that we've found an acceptable work around, one that does require a little initial let work, but after that it is all automatic. The process is actually simple and in the end you'll have a hard time being able to tell which shows were recorded with Windows Media Center, and which were downloaded -- and of course they're in HD. The bad news is that the legality of downloading HD from the internet isn't exactly crystal clear, but if you aren't scared of BitTorrent and you're looking for a way to fill in the gab left by the HD channels your provider doesn't offer, then click on through.
Netgear unveils Internet TV Player, Digital Entertainer Elite with CinemaNow
We've now got a content provider giving support to Netgear's Digital Entertainer Elite, and that honor goes to CinemaNow. At today's overly-enthusiastic press conference -- seriously, they threw apples, footballs, and a beer can at certain points -- the company showed off the pay-per-view service on both the aforementioned media streamer as well as the new, much smaller Internet TV Player that's coming this summer for $199. It's very lightweight and has an HDMI output alongside two USB 2.0 ports. It's got YouTube support as well as North American, Europe, and Asia internet TV. The upscaled video looked good, although nothing that's gonna replace your HDTV anytime soon. One very nice feature is support for torrents that you can trigger remotely for download to the player (presumably on an attached disk drive here, as there's no internal storage from what we can tell). No word on codec support, but if they're touting torrents, we're hoping for at least some DivX / XviD and MKV love. The much larger and heavier granddaddy Elite, whos specs we've already heard care of the FCC, is coming February for $399. A fun little feature touted in the presser allows you to pause a video on one TV and watch it on another -- provided you've got a separate Elite unit connected to each. The bad news? Neither device supports Hulu or Netflix, although a rep told us that they're kinda sorta looking into adding the latter sometime in the future. %Gallery-40862%%Gallery-40863%
New Samsung TVs to support every codec we've heard of?
This would be an interesting turn of events, but looking back at that AVForum post from earlier this week we noticed -- thanks Megazone -- that the new Samsung HDTVs featuring Internet@Tv Widgets will also include support for just about every video codec we've heard of (full list after the jump). So while some people might be clamoring for widgets on their TV -- we're not -- others just want an easy to playback 1080p MKV files with h.264 inside. Of course this isn't official or anything, but we'll be waiting -- with our hopes up -- until the Samsung press event tomorrow at 5PM EST.[Via GizmoLovers]
Netgear Digital Entertainer Elite media streamer says hello to the FCC
Netgear returns with the Digital Entertainer Elite network media streamer taking an early peek from cover to go through its paces at the FCC test center. Two years after the EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD, the EVA9000 model adds support for a 3.5-inch SATA internal HDD, 802.11n and more to its predecessor's lengthy list of features. The leaked spec comparison after the break reveals AVI, XviD, DivX and h.264 decoding returning plus Dolby True HD, DTS-HD Master Audio, MKV, TS, M2TS file support that should chew through any HD files you've got and then some. Why wait for an official announcement, shipping date or price? The FCC already had its fun, so check out the PDFs for a full manual plus pictures inside & out, then once this box hits the stage at CES just pretend like you never saw it with the cover off.[Pictures via AVSForum]
Windows 7 to natively support DivX and transcoding?
Currently getting 3rd party codecs like DivX and Xvid working within Windows Media Center has worked well enough with 3rd party solutions, but the next best thing is native support. We'd already gotten the official word that H.264 support was included in Windows 7, but a tipster has lead us to believe that the pre-beta version of Windows 7 also includes native support for DivX. In addition, MKV is also expected to be supported; but that isn't the best part. Because although we've always been able to add these codecs to Media Center anyways, the real crux has been when you try to watch the very same content on an extender -- like the Xbox 360. So in an attempt to bring the entire Media Center experience to the extenders it appears Microsoft has added native transcoding. So now if Media Center can play the file, it can also convert it on the fly to a format that your extender supports. Of course like all betas, there's no guarantee these features will make it into the final build, but we sure hope they do.
Perian 1.1.2 released, fixes updating
Last night, Perian was updated to version 1.1.2. If you need to extend the capabilities of QuickTime, the free Perian plugin allows QuickTime to play back all kinds of popular video formats (.AVI, .MKV, .FLV and more). It's a handy utility for anyone who watches a lot of video on their Mac. Here's a list of the bug fixes/improvements in 1.1.2: Fixed update checker never running - this version requires a manual install Enabled frame-dropping on AppleTV Fixed some frames being lost in AVCHD/.mp4 with newer versions of QuickTime Fixed another ffmpeg crash on G3s You can download the update to Perian from the project's website. You can also see the version history list on their support website.Thanks for the tip, Chris!
DivX 7 to officially support MKV
Like anyone else, we can't get enough video formats -- not -- but unlike H.264, DivX, XviD and MPEG-2 the latest rage is Matroska (aka MKV) is not a codec, but a container. It is the format which holds other formats, so you should be wondering, what's so special about it? It is special because it can hold new combinations of codecs and it is open for anyone to use. The most popular new feature is its ability to contain x.264 video, DTS audio, and at the same time subtitles in multiple languages, all in the same file. It is quickly becoming the replacement for AVI, and has the best chance of becoming the mp3 of video, than any other container has before. The problem of course is support. As usual Windows is covered, but thanks to Perian, Macs have support now too. And of course the most universal player in the world, VLC does too. But now it appears it has warranted some commercial support and the next version of DivX will play nice too. This of course doesn't mean that any hardware vendors will join in -- other than the Popcorn Hour that is -- but it's a step in the right direction.
