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Uebo introduces versatile M200 media streamer, we go hands-on
Yes, the world needs another high-definition media streamer like it needs a shot in the foot, but never let it be said we passed up the chance to try a promising product simply because the competition was good. We're talking about the Uebo M200 --a never-before-seen box from storage company UIT -- whose claim to fame is a $130 price for everything-but-the-kitchen-sink media center functionality. Out of the box it's your standard streamer, playing loads of media formats from memory cards, attached storage and thumbdrives, plus ShoutCast internet radio, RSS feeds and UPnP shares from your PC, but also the usual suspects Hulu, Netflix, CBS and more via PlayOn media server. Pop in a 3.5-inch SATA disk, however, and things get more entertaining, as the box itself turns into an external hard drive, a network-attached storage device and even a Bittorrent client. It also doesn't hurt that the Uebo can hook up to most any entertainment system, with not only HDMI, component and composite connections but also every standard (HD, NTSC and PAL) video mode, there's a $30 optional wireless dongle, and the digital audio front includes both optical and coaxial jacks for output. Sadly, in practice the above functionality isn't as streamlined as it sounds -- as is usually the case with these devices image quality can suffer slightly, and Uebo's GUI has a face only a mother could love. While the device admirably played the vast majority of one editor's anime music video collection (though it stumbled over XviD and Sorenson Video 3), sorting through nested menus to get to our content was a hell of a chore. PlayOn and Bittorrent seemed to work, though their roundabout implementation left much to be desired, with the former only accessible through a deep dive of the UPnP menu, and the latter requiring torrent trackers to be uploaded from a separate PC using a web client. We had a couple of crashes when testing the device, too, including a Bittorrent-related one where the Uebo completely stopped responding to input, but the majority of the time we enjoyed HD and SD content on the fairly capable little TV server. All in all, it's not the most polished product and shouldn't distract you from popcorn-eating elephants in the room, but if you're looking for a cheaper alternative it's hard to argue with Uebo. Take a brief tour with our gallery below, or hit up the more coverage link for a full datasheet. %Gallery-97771%
Buffalo's LT-V100 Link Theater streams every format under the sun at 1080p
If for some reason none of the media streamers on the market at the moment have suited your particular tastes, perhaps Buffalo's new LT-V100 Link Theater is just right. It's a little box offering HDMI and composite video plus optical and good 'ol 3.5mm audio outputs, able to manage 1080pwhen streaming content either over Ethernet or pulling it right from USB-based storage. Naturally these little darlings live or die by their format compatibility, and in that regard Buffalo's is quite a fighter, able to play anything from RealVideo to Matroska, naturally with various flavors of MPEG, WMV, and Xvid along the way. It'll also do images and plenty of audio formats as well. All this can be yours later this month for ¥11,500 -- about $130 -- if you live in Japan. %Gallery-97552%
TiVo's $90 Wireless N Network Adapter now available
Took you long enough, eh TiVo? Just under five months after the AN0100 802.11n WiFi adapter splashed down in the FCC's database, the company responsible for the Premiere has finally decided to ship this here dongle. The newly christened TiVo Wireless N Network Adapter is designed to function with all dual-tuner TiVo boxes (though it won't play nice with the DirecTV DVR with TiVo), enabling those who'd rather not run a 50 foot Ethernet drop to still access web features. Fortunately, it's available now for those who've waited; unfortunately, it'll cost you a staggering $89.99. Check it out now from TiVo's website or pick it up later this week at your local Best Buy.
Pogoplug now streaming to Xbox 360 and PS3, handling offsite backups
It's been a long and painful four months since Pogoplug introduced its second generation NAS-ifier, but those who've been holding out for additional functionality can finally buy in. In an effort to cater to these so-called "gamers," the company has enabled its device to stream multimedia content directly to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game consoles; users will be able to access, share and stream media directly to their console from any local or remotely located Pogoplug, and if all goes well, your console should actually see the drives connected to the Pogoplug and the contents of other shared Pogoplugs automatically. In related news, the unit is also now capable of pushing out offsite backups through a new version of Active Copy (shown above), so all that's left to do is hop online and suck down that tasty firmware update that should be waiting. Enjoy! %Gallery-88335%
Emblaze goes flame on, sues Microsoft and Apple for patent infringement
It looks like it's going to be one of those days. Emblaze, parent company of Else and creator of the First Else that we felt compelled to check the pulse of at CES, is going down the long, dangerous road of patent disputes, challenging both Microsoft and Apple with a lawsuit having something to do with streaming of media. Emblaze didn't say which patent was being infringed upon, but did say that Microsoft is doing the infringing in the tech behind its Silverlight Smooth Streaming, and that naughty boy Apple's HTTP Live Streaming is at fault. While we generally scoff at these sorts of things, this is the first such lawsuit we've seen from Emblaze, and investors at least think it has merit, boosting the company's shares by 13.5 percent. But what do investors know about patent disputes? Update: Dan from StreamingMedia wrote in to let us know that the patent in question is the vague, 1999-vintage 6,389,473 called "Network Media Streaming." It covers "a method for real-time broadcasting from a transmitting computer to one or more client computers over a network." We'll go ahead and let you draw your own conclusions.
Spawn Labs starts shipping HD-720, your video games now ready to be slung
Hey, remember Spawn Labs? Look, we know last September was a long, long time ago, but how could you ever forget the box that essentially acts as the Slingbox for your video game consoles? The HD-720, which arrives with the ability to pass along either Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 signals to a web-connected PC for remote playback, is now available to order for $199.95, while additional adapters can also be purchased for $39.95. Of course, you should make sure you have a pretty robust Windows-based laptop and a solid internet connection before getting your hopes up too high here, but if those are well taken care of, your portable gaming dreams are now just a credit card indention away. [Thanks, Ryan]
Syabas Popbox hands-on
The Popcorn Hour lineup had (and still has) a huge following, but it remains one of the most under-appreciated media streamers on the market from a mainstream perspective. We get the feeling that all of that's gearing up to change, with Syabas demonstrating its highly marketable Popbox here at CES. We were able to swing by and take a look at the product tonight, and we've got to confess -- it'd be a pretty stellar add to any home entertainment setup. The box was small, light and stylish enough, and the actual user interface was drop-dead simple to navigate. It hooks up with any networked media (the demo was playing back content from a NAS drive), and it even pulls down metadata from IMDB for films. We briefly watched a couple of 720p clips, and playback started instantly and the video quality was nothing short of fantastic. We've got a video in the works, but for now, feel free to have a glance at the gallery below. Update: Video is now live after the break! %Gallery-81577%
HSTi Wireless Media Stick nixes the need for dedicated storage drives
The banners aren't even officially up in Vegas yet, and already we're catching a drift of what all will be unveiled in the days to come. Take this Wireless Media Stick for example, which is HSTi's way of telling you that a dedicated storage drive beside your Blu-ray player or media player is completely unnecessary. Put simply, this device (and the accompanying software, we presume) plugs directly into any USB-enabled disc player or media streamer that's connected to your television; from there, you can easily stream media that's already shacked up within your main PC to your TV-connected device(s), which cures the problem of having your media fragmented between varying drives. We're still waiting to hear exactly what kind of technology this thing relies on (we're guessing 2.4GHz), but hopefully we'll find out more (along with a price and ship date) real soon.
TiVo's AN0100 802.11n WiFi adapter hits the FCC, stirs up imaginations
TiVo's Wireless G USB network adapter has been out and about since late 2005, so to say an 802.11n version is past due would be understating things dramatically. At long last, it seems as if high-speed network access is coming to the heralded DVR, with an AN0100 802.11n AP recently splashing down at the FCC. There's no instruction manual or indication of whether this is the device we've been waiting for in order to stream networked media to the TV through one's TiVo, but why else would the outfit bother with tossing out a new dongle with support for higher throughput? We know, we're letting ourselves get a bit too optimistic here -- but c'mon, can you really blame us?
Orb for Mac finally arrives, streams media from OS X to any internet-connected device
Wow, where've you been, Orb? It's been a full year since we heard anything from the once-adored media streaming outfit, and while it's been streaming out content to iPhones for quite some time, those relying on Macs to do it have been left in the damp night air. Until now, that is. Orb for Macintosh has finally hit the streets, bringing with it OS X 10.5 and 10.6 compatibility that enables any and all media from iTunes to be sent out over the internet and consumed on any outside device with access to the web. We're talking laptops, UMPCs, smartphones and even that ancient PC your grandmother still uses with Windows ME. There's no mention of any DRM restrictions, and it'll even allow you to stream live TV if you can manage to connect a tuner card to your Apple. Oh, and did we mention that Orb is completely free? Hit the download link below to get your weekend started off right. Read - Download Orb Read - Press release
Netflix hints at Watch Instantly integration on 'already-popular device'
Microsoft's Xbox 360 may call itself the only console to stream Netflix, but all that could be changing -- and soon. As Netflix continues to pull in new subscribers (and cash flow) like it's no big deal, the company is apparently looking to spread its wings even further by integrating its wildly popular Watch Instantly feature into "a device already owned by a large number of consumers." Naturally, the most fitting candidates for that would be Sony's PlayStation 3 or Nintendo's Wii, though the company has yet to come forward with anything concrete. Just so know you, Netflix credits the Xbox 360's streaming integration as the main reason some 2.4 million customers have signed up since late 2008, so it's more than apparent that it loves the game console. Any bets for when this will go down, or are you just plugging your ears in order to avoid potential disappointment? [Via Joystiq]
Patriot's $130 Box Office 1080p media player streams on the cheap
Eying a Popcorn Hour device, are you? We know Patriot isn't exactly the first name you think of when pondering your next media streamer, but the $129.99 price tag affixed to the black box shown above definitely piqued our interest. Like most of its rivals, this one features a 2.5-inch HDD slot (though you'll need to bring your own drive, obviously), a trio of USB sockets, 10/100 Ethernet for content streaming, UPnP support, a rather decent file support list and a bundled remote. There's also an optional USB WiFi adapter for those not keen on running 80 feet of Ethernet cabling through their den, and while the GUI won't revolutionize your life, it certainly ain't bad given the low barrier to entry. Too bad it's still stuck in that painful-to-watch "pre-order" stage, huh?[Via thegadgetsite]
Video: Spawn Labs HD-720 aims to be the Slingbox to your game console, we go hands-on
Sure, your heart may be aflutter with thoughts of gaming cloud services like OnLive and OTOY, but quietly making its debut this week is Spawn Labs with its "Bring Your Own console" HD-720 video game streamer, due out this November for $199.95. In a nutshell, the device works as a Slingbox for your Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PS2, or GameCube and lets you play those consoles over the internet on your Windows PC (a Mac client is said to be in the works). The AV cables -- component or composite, no HDMI at this point -- are connected and can be then passed through to a TV as normal. A USB connection is used to sync up the controller, and there's also an IR signal for turning the connected system(s) on and off. On the computer, you can log the Spawn Labs website and play either your own system or jump onto one of your friends' systems for some faux-local co-op or to be a spectator. We had a chance to take a look at the streamer and talk with some of the minds behind it at TechCrunch 50 to fill in some of the missing details. In a fairly controlled environment -- the device hooked up via ethernet to a private router on the show floor -- we were able to competently play Soul Calibur IV with what we were told was around 100ms audio / video and 5ms controller lag. Under ideal situations, it streams 720p / 30 frames per second in H.264 video with AAC-LC audio, but that can automatically downscale when the connection slows -- should we decide we're too lazy to make it from our bedroom to the couch to play Halo (an all too frequent scenario), it'll clearly work fine over a local network, but it's gonna be how well it works across that internet that's the real deal-breaker, and we weren't able to test that. Cross-continent play isn't recommended, but you can have spectators from all over the world and it won't at all affect your latency. Any PC controller can work and be custom-mapped, including just keyboard and mouse, although if you're wanting to use a PS3 pad you'll have to find the drivers for it yourself. The game window itself has buttons along the bottom for pulling up the system's specific guide menu or recording the video for upload to YouTube. What's impressive to us is that it's said to work with any computer that can handle a 720p video stream, and so far in the labs they've apparently got it working well on an ION-based netbook -- but we didn't get to see that for ourselves, so we'll hold applause until we can put it through its paces ourselves. See a video demonstration for yourself after the break.
VUDU equips LG's BD390 Blu-ray player with movie streaming abilities
LG's WiFi-enabled, DivX-friendly BD390 Blu-ray player has been shipping here in the States since May, but not until now have you really had a reason to pick one up. Here at CEDIA, VUDU is taking one step further away from its standalone movie set-top-box by announcing that the aforementioned deck will become the first of its kind to tap into VUDU's growing library of on-demand film rentals. Of course, adding VUDU to this player was a natural move given the built-in Ethernet port, though users will have to wait until the end of this month to suck down the free update. In case you're wondering, the VUDU interface on LG's player will be the same as the one found on the company's own hardware (not to mention a few LG HDTVs), and the $399 price point will remain the same even after the new functionality is added.
Sherwood's 700W R-904N NetBoxx AV receiver dabbles in online media
Not sure if you've noticed, but CEDIA has just kicked off down in the ATL. One of the first to introduce something genuinely fresh is Sherwood (of all companies), with its R-904N NetBoxx pulling double duty as a 7.1-channel AV receiver and an internet media portal. For starters, the compact set-top-box looks nothing like a typical AVR, but you'll still find 700 total watts of amplification, three HDMI 1.3 inputs, one Toslink input, a pair of coaxial audio inputs and support for Dolby Volume, Dolby TruHD and DTS-HD Master high-resolution audio formats. Once you're done hooking up your music makers, feel free to shove an Ethernet cable in there and witness its ability to pull down material from PlayOn (Hulu, Netflix, CBS, CNN, ESPN, Amazon, etc.), CinemaNow, YouTube and SHOUTcast. There's also a USB socket for loading up media locally, and at just 17- x 10- x 2.5-inches, it shouldn't take up too much room underneath your current HDTV. It'll set you back $649.95 when it ships later this month, and you can feel free to dig even deeper in the full release just past the break.
Blockbuster OnDemand en route to Samsung HDTVs, Blu-ray players, and home theater systems
Questionable longevity or no, Blockbuster's taking some strides to get itself firmly into the video on demand business, and this latest announcement will go a long way with that. The company announced that it's integrating its OnDemand service into Samsung HDTVs, home theater systems, and Blu-ray players starting Fall 2009. Better still, those with LED HDTVs series 7000 or above, LCD / Plasmas series 650 or above, and select 2009 Blu-ray players / theater systems can get the service later via firmware update. It's still got a ways to go if it wants to catch up to Netflix, but every little bit helps, right?
Mvix Ultio "It Plays All" HD media streamer debuts in the U.S. July 6 for $179
We'd heard rumors Mvix USA would be rolling out an upgraded 1080p capable media box to rival the earlier MvixPVR and here it is. Dubbed the Ultio, it has a list of supported codecs and containers that rivals the new Popcorn Hour C-200 in its thoroughness -- DivX® (3/4/5/6), Xvid, AVC-HD, MPEG 1/2/4, WMV-9, ASF(WMV9), MKV, DVD(IFO, VOB), ISO, MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG, FLAC, AC3 -- it's all here, with a slightly awkward Swiss Army knife-themed tagline to boot. The $169 price tag is sans-3.5-inch SATA HDD, though you can add one for $79 (500GB) $90 (1TB) or $139 (1.5TB). Of course network streaming is a part of the package, with Mvix's usual suite of Samba / UPnP / BitTorrent (mentioning compatibility with PlayOn and Tversity specifically to get all your Netflix, YouTube and other streaming sources to TV) via Ethernet or optional Wireless-N dongle. It's up for pre-orders now, take a close look at the specs and pics then get in line before they start shipping July 6.
QNAP's NMP1000 network media player starts streaming to Japan
It's been ages (okay, months) since we first got our hands on the QNAP NMP1000 network media player, and it's a good long while past its supposed shipping date. But, shipping it is (finally), now hitting Japanese stores according to Akihabara News. Initially we were only told that the thing would cost "somewhere under $10,000," and we're glad to say it's way under: ¥45,000, or about $470. For that you get an HDMI 1.3-toting HD media streamer, which sports room for a 3.5-inch HDD, a gigabit Ethernet port, and the ability to not only stream media but also to act as a NAS, meaning this one didn't fall far from the 'ol family tree. Still no word on a US release, but hopefully that'll be well under $10,000 as well. Soothing demonstration video to tide you over after the break.
Conceptronic shows off potent Yuixx media streamer at Computex
Conceptronic has been doing a fairly admirable job with promoting itself as a serious player in the crowded media streamer market, and while its atypically designed Grab 'n Go was certainly worth a look at CES, it's the Yuixx that could really launch it into the next level. Shown over at Computex, this HD media streamer was loaded with broad format compatibility, Intel's fledgling CE 3100 media processor and support for Yahoo! widgets, TV tuning, a "Firefox-based" web browser, a 3.5-inch internal hard drive, WiFi and Ethernet. We're told that three variants will be made available for those looking for a more stripped-down version, and while an exact release date has yet to be set, an autumn introduction and a price range of around €250 ($354) to €450 ($638) is expected. Peek the read link for a few looks at the sleek user interface.
ASUS to introduce O!Play media player at Computex
Wait, what's this? ASUS diving head first into the HD media streamer game? Based on images and details acquired by Hardware, we'd say chances are looking pretty good. Reportedly, the aforementioned outfit will showcase its very own media player at Computex next week in Taiwan, and our expectations are already fairly lofty. The O!Play (codename HDP-R1) is said to be a fair bit quicker than competing models, and the file compatibility list is also worthy of laud. Port wise, this one's packing eSATA, USB, HDMI, stereo audio jacks, optical digital audio, Ethernet and an AC port. If all goes well, we could see this little bugger in European stores by July, with a price tag pegged at €119 ($168). Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as if that price nets you an internal HDD, but we'll find out for sure soon enough.[Via The Inquirer]
