D-Link DSM-210 Internet Picture Frame - Pictures and Internet All-In-One

We have to admit that video picture frames don't thrill us too much but when you mention a frame that's internet enabled, our ears perk up. One device that catches our eye is the D-Link DSM-210. The DSM-210 is more than a one-trick pony according to DigitalMediaPhile:

I'm pretty impressed. Besides handling the wireless streaming (which you'd expect from a wireless picture frame), the DSM-210 is very network savvy. Autosensing my DNS-323 NAS (which sports a UPnPAV media server) the network settings displayed this server as a media source. When I fired up a computer that previously was not used for media sharing, Window Vista detected the DSM-210 and asked if I wanted to set up Windows Media Sharing. Pretty slick.

The frame has 1GB internal storage and comes pre-loaded with some sample pictures. D-Link has a widget that works with Yahoo Widgets and lets you manage the content in the built in memory. Delete the samples and drop your own images onto the widget and they are quickly uploaded. In fact, the widget lets you manage multiple frames.

I've only just begun to explore the Online Content features. You can view photo streams from all the usual places (or set up your own from your hard drive or other RSS capable source). Plus there are channels for just about every interest. And yeah, I've got my local weather forecast set up.

Hmm...now we're interested. We're not sure we'd jump at the DSM-210 at the $299 price point but maybe if the price drops, we'll actually buy a digital picture frame.

At DigitalMediaphile

D-Link DSM-210 at Amazon.com

New Popcorn Hour Models Due Out Soon?

We came across a very interesting article over at Geek Zone that alludes to new models of one of our favorite media streamers: The Popcorn Hour A-100. It looks like someone who was trying to set up a Popcorn Hour reseller contract got word that they were ready to release new models soon. The Geek Zone board use to have the specs for the devices, but it looks like it has been removed. We went over to EngadgetHD to find the info we were looking for. Here are the unverified specs that are out there:

• A-110: USB Slave / SATA / HDMI 1.1
• B-110: Home Theatre main Board based on feedback, comments and targetted for the hobbyist to create it's own HTPC style case and be a bit active around modding and making it's own casing (also a casing could be provided).
• IDE / USB Slave / HDMI 1.3 / MINI ITX factor Optical / Coaxial / Mini PCI Player is internally references as "hi-jack hour"
• A-112: SATA / USB Slave / HDMI 1.3 cube casing with LCD
• S-200A: 2GB Flash, Black player, HDMI 1.1 and VGA, UART port (signage)
• WN-100: USB Wireless N USB dongle (20Mbps capped for now)

We'll keep our ears opened for any info on this and we'll try and ping our contact over at Popcorn Hour and see if they can shed some light on this.

Iomega's ScreenPlay HD Media Extender: A 500GB Hi-Def USB Media Player

Iomega, one of the leaders in helping you store your content, has released a Hi-Def media streaming hard drive to help with experiencing your media via your entertainment center. The Screenplay is a USB based hard drive streaming device that will allow you to store just about all of your videos, music and pictures in one place. There is no network with this device so you will have to load it up via USB with all of your content, but it does support HDMI which most of the media hard drives on the market do not support. This will allow you to play a bunch of different file types like:

• MPEG-1
• MPEG-2( AVI / VOB )
• MPEG-4( AVI / DiVX / XVid )
• JPEG
• MP3
• AC3
• WMA
• WAV
• OGG

With the Screenplay you will be able to view your videos at 1080i which should satisfy most people these days. Sadly there is no H.264 support as of yet. We couldn't find any info on their site as to what CPU they are using in there so it may be that they can't do H.264. Hopefully they are using the newer Sigma 8634 processor. That way H.264 can come via a firmware update later. If they are using a lower powered CPU then H.264 probably will remain a pipe dream. This is a device we may have to go out and get as this could be a very cool travel streamer. Going somewhere and want to take your media collection with you, bring the Screenplay. We'll hunt around for some hands on reviews in the meantime and see if this thing is worth your time.

via gadgets fan

available at Amazon

MvixUSA Releases New MV-2500U HD Multimedia Hard Drive

One of our favorite companies when it comes to media streamers has been MvixUSA and they have just released another cool portable media streamer dubbed the MV-2500U. This little( 5- x 3- x 0.8-inches ) device sports a 2.5" internal drive and basically will be able to fit in your pocket. You can now take a large portion of your media collection with you wherever you go. And the fact that it will let you output in HD is a huge bonus for this little device. MvixUSA has focused on this segment for awhile now, producing products that can act as your main home streamer, but also have the functionality to be taken with you. The MV-2500U does not have an LCD screen like the rest of their products so you will have to rely on the on-screen menu system to navigate your stored media.

Check out after the jump for the format and connection options that you will have with this device. Continue reading: "MvixUSA Releases New MV-2500U HD Multimedia Hard Drive"

Popcorn Hour A-100 Available For Public Pre-Order

We recently got an email from our friends over at Popcorn Hour letting us know that they have opened up their ordering system to everyone. For a long time you were only able to buy a Popcorn Hour A-100 by signing up as a member and getting on their wait list. In the past this wait list was months long. Well it looks like they have been able to ramp up their manufacturing process and have enough devices to open up the ordering to everyone. It will still be a first come first serve system, so the sooner your pre-order the quicker you will receive your Popcorn Hour streamer.

We have had our Popcorn Hour A-100 in the office for awhile now and we have been really digging it. Of course it is not without its flaws, but it is one of the top streamers on the market today. And for $179 it is a total bargain. You would be hard pressed to find a HD( 1080p ) media streamer out there for under $200. So If you are in need of a new media streamer and you want to be able to stream true HD, stream over NFS and have a device from a company that is devoted to constantly improving their product, then this is the box for you. Like we said, for $179 it is a no brainer.

You can read all of our coverage of the Popcorn Hour A-100 Media Streamer here.

MediaGate HD MG-450HD Now Available For Purchase

We had reported earlier about the new streamer from MediaGate and our thoughts on it were mixed. While it did offer a lot of nice features we thought it lacked a lot of polish. Also the stock image they were using to promote the device did not have an HDMI input on it, but they were talking a big game about HDMI so that really confused us. We said that we would update you when we got more info about the release date of the MG-450HD so here we are letting you know that they are officially being sold so if you want to grab one you can click here. We are going to try and see about getting one in the office and see how it preforms. We'll be sure to let you know what we find out.

available at Amazon.

D-Link MediaLounge DPG-1200 Media Streamer Now Shipping

After a fairly long lead up the DPG-1200 is finally available for purchase. This streamer will not only allow you to stream your media content from your PC to your TV but also allow you to bring all the 'great' video content on the web right to your living room. You will be able to browse all of the big video sites on the web and view them via the DPG-1200 on your TV. This will connect to your home network using its wireless connection( WPA2 thankfully ) and can connect to your TV via Component, Composite or VGA. You can check out all of their other specs here. The list price is $239.99 and we are working on getting one in our offices to give it a run through to see if it is something you guys might like. If you have any questions about this device let us know and we will do the best to answer them or track down the answers from D-Link.

via engadget

IOGEAR Portable Media Storage Unit: Take your Media With You

IOGEAR has released a pretty cool little product called, what else, the Portable Media Player. This is basically a slimline hard drive attached to a video out unit allowing Component or Composite connectors for hooking up to your TV. The Component cables will allow you to upconvert to 720p if you have a HDTV. We love these types of products here at NAV, a small device to take your media with you. Going on vacation somewhere that has a TV and you want to watch your movies? Take this with you, hook it up and feel like you never left home( although that kind of defeats the purpose of a vacation, but nevermind that ). We think it is just cool to be able to walk around with a 120GB disk full of your media, plug it into a TV or stereo and enjoy it without having to lug around a bunch of discs. It comes with a remote control so you can control everything from your couch. To get content onto the device you hook it up to your PC and transfer data via USB 2.0. This is very PC centric so you Mac and Linux folks out there you may want to pass on this. Check out after the jump for the supported codecs/protocols.

vai engadget Continue reading: "IOGEAR Portable Media Storage Unit: Take your Media With You"

Buffalo LinkTheater HD Media Streamer Available in the US

Buffalo, makers of all kinds of storage products has slowly been getting into the home media streaming market and just announced that they are bringing the LinkTheater HD to the States. We had covered one of their earlier products, the LinkThearter DVD, and from what we had read it wasn't a top notch streamer. Well they have been in the shop and have come up with what seems to be a great little product. The LinkTheater HD supports 720p and 1080i via HDMI. Because of some weird lawsuit they can only bring the wired version of the device to the US, the wireless version is staying in Japan. There is a USB port on the back so you can hook up an external hard drive to stream off of or just stream from a computer that is on your network via the Ethernet port. It supports a decent amount of formats, check it out after the jump.
Continue reading: "Buffalo LinkTheater HD Media Streamer Available in the US"

D-Link DSM-750 Finally Shipping

Well after a lot of waiting the DSM-750 from D-Link is finally shipping. This was announced awhile ago and those of you waiting for the latest media center extender can finally have your wish and own the newest extender on the market. The 750 sports the fancy new 802.11N wireless protocol so streaming hi-def content won't be a problem. We did read though that you can only expect to get 1080i via the HDMI cables so that is a bummer. The 750 can be used in one of two ways. Either acting as an extender for your Windows Media Center or as a standalone D-Link MediaLounge player. They have reduced the price down to $329.99 from $349.99 that they originally announced. It supports the usually bevy of media formats and should cover just about everything you could want( sorry, no FLAC ).

If you are in the market for a media extender to add to your new fancy Media Center PC then this might be a great addition. Covers the basics and adds ultra fast wireless N speeds. There are a lot of cool things you can do with these media extenders and we have definitely seen an upsurge in the amount that are getting produced. If anyone has been using one of these we would love to hear from you. Everyone has different needs and tastes and we want to hear what you think about media extenders in general.

via ehomeupgrade

Grab one from Amazon.

Myka Media Streamer Adds BitTorrent to the Mix

There has been a flood of new streamers from companies we have never heard of lately and we have mixed feelings. On the one hand it is great that so many people are jumping into the media streaming world. The more competition in the space the better. On the other hand, for every great product that is released there are ten others that are pretty crappy and it can be hard for someone thinking of buying their first media streamer to know what is the right device to get. Now that we got that off of our chest we can talk about this new product we just came across: the Myka media streamer. This guy has the form factor of a Mac Mini and the specs of a pretty bad ass little streamer. The main draw of the Myka is the fact that it has BitTorrent built right into the device. This isn't being billed as an extra, but rather the main reason to own the Myka. This box seems to ditch the traditional idea of a media streamer and put all of its eggs in the BitTorrent basket.

Looking over their site the seem to have some grand plans for this device. They say that they are in talks with a bunch of major studios and television networks so that you can use the Mkya as your one stop destination to download all of your favorite movies and shows. They are going directly up against AppleTV and they admit it. They are touting that the fact that they are open will allow them to make a better streamer and ultimately a better experience for the viewer. While we love the idea of companies opening up their devices so that we can all tinker with them we can't see any studio signing on unless they have strict assurances that their content won't just be pirated off the box. The reason studios sign up with Apple is because they have a decent security system set up so that it is very difficult for people to take the content out of iTunes and share it with everyone.

This is set to release this Summer so you can bet that we will be all over it when it comes out. If we here anymore info about this we'll update you. Check out after the jump for different connection options and supported formats. Continue reading: "Myka Media Streamer Adds BitTorrent to the Mix"

Ziovia C615 HD Network Media Streamer Is Coming

In going over some saved articles we had lying around we found a gem that the good people over at Gizmodo had reported on a few months back. The C615 is the newest creation out of the Ziovia labs and from the Gizmodo report it looks like it keeps up with the high standards that their previous products had set. We had reported on the CS505 awhile back and where extremely impressed with what we saw. The new C615 takes their products to the next level with a new design and a new approach. In the past most of their products included a DVD drive so you could not only use it as your media streamer, but also as your everyday DVD player. Well the new 615 moves away from that and becomes more of a true streamer by ditching its DVD player and relying completely on network content.

Continue reading: "Ziovia C615 HD Network Media Streamer Is Coming"

Video Download Battle Royal: Xbox 360 vs Vudu vs AppleTV

We here at Networking Audio Video have always been about finding the best way to stream media around your house. We love the idea that you can load all of your Videos, Pictures and Music onto a server and play them anywhere in your house. While we always will love the idea of owning content we can't help but see the writing on the wall and realize that renting content or subscribing to content on the web is probably going to be the next step for many people. Devices like the Vudu haven't really interested us much since they only allow you to view/buy content that they have on their servers. Well we realize that we may have to get with the times and accept that content in the cloud is probably going to be the media streaming choice of the future.

The god people over at gizmodo have done a nice round up of 3 of the best known devices that allow you to rent/buy content from the web: the Xbox 360, the Vudu and the AppleTV. They end up leaning towards the Vudu as the overall winner, but they had a lot of good points as to why the Xbox 360 and AppleTV should be considered right up there with them. They did a fairly thorough review of the three units and we think it seems like a great resource for anyone trying to figure out which device is best suited for them. You can check out their review here.

We would love to hear any of your feedback or comments on their findings. We haven't had first hand experience with the Vudu yet so we don't know what that service is like. Anyone want to give us their impressions?

via gizmodo

ISTAR Mini: Another Media Player Using the Networked Media Tank Software

After just reviewing the new Popcorn Hour product we came across this other device that uses the same middleware stack: the ISTAR Mini Networked Media Tank Player. A company called syabas writes the middleware and sells it to device manufacturers to install in their device. This is a pretty standard deal these days as more and more of these products that we come across use 3rd party middleware.

The ISTAR( their caps not mine ) has a better looking case in my opinion then the Popcorn Hour. It is sporting a different connection scheme on the back then the Popcorn Hour though. The ISTAR has an HDMI port along with VGA and composite while the Popcorn Hour has HDMI, composite, component and S-Video. Another difference between the two devices is that unlike the Popcorn Hour this can use a SATA drive for its internal HD. But I have to say that after looking at their site it just reeks of something that was slapped together to get a product out the door. The site sports all the buzzwords that is so common with media streamers today. With the Popcorn Hour you get the sense that while they did use another companies middleware to power their device they really want to create a great product for their customers. We could be totally off base here and the ISTAR could be a great device, but since we had never head of it before and there is no real 'meat' on the site letting us know anything special about the device we figure it is just a slap together.

If anyone owns one of these, knows someone who owns one or even works at the company making these wants to correct us we are all ears. We would love to be wrong and welcome another top notch media streamer to the party, but our guess is that this guy won't be invited.