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

Planex DigiJike BitTorrent NAS: The Future of Home Media Streaming?

For all you BitTorrent fans out there a new box is on the market( somewhere ) that may be your holy grail. The Planex DigiJuke NAS device will allow you to specify what content you are interested in and it will use its built-in browser to find the torrents and start downloading them. This is basically like having Tivo, but instead of just being able to grab only what your cable provider gives you, now you can have anything that has been uploaded on the web. With the built in 1TB of storage it will allow you to store quite a few movies before you need to offload to a backup device. One of the DIgiJukes big selling points is that it can automatically format your newly downloaded content for a bevy of devices from PSPs to iPods to just your standard TV.

On top of the BitTorrent hard drive aspect of the DigiJuke, it can also act as your standard NAS device serving up files and media to all of your devices. It comes with the standard USB ports so you can attach extra storage or just so you can pop in an extra hard drive to watch some of your friends content.

The main site is in Japanese and the translation page doesn't reveal much so we don't have all the info on this device. We do know that it will retail for around $524 and come with 2 500GB drives. We don't know if this will ever be released in the US, but we will continue to look into it and see if we can dig anything up.

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"

WiDrive: WiFi Media Hard Drive Helps Reduce the Cables in Your Setup

Here is an interesting device for people that like to keep things nice and tidy. The WiDrive from EDS Lab offers users a WiFi enabled hard drive that will stream their media for them. This seems like a very sweet idea as we are always on the lookout for ways to reduce the size, complexity, and power consumption of our media server. There are two models currently in the works, one that allows transfers via its USB port and the other one that just charges the device over USB. As you would imagine the one device( PX-100 ) that doesn't allow for USB transfers is a nice small 1.8 inch drive wheres the bigger 2.5 inch drive does allow for transfers.

These diminutive little devices pack a nice punch though. Check out the different options you have with them:

• BitTorrent Client
• RSS podcast subscription
• Built in Web Server
• WebDav
• UPnP
• Bonjour

The only major downside to this device is that it mainly connects over 802.11 b/g so we aren't actually sure how one would go about configuring this unless you removed all of the security on your network to allow this to connect and went from there. Maybe something is possible via USB, who knows. Their site doesn't really give any info as to when and where it will be available so we will keep looking and report back if we find any important info out.

via engadget

QNAP TS-409: The Only Backup Server You Will Ever Need

For those wanting a secure way to save all their files and at the same time have a fully robust media server look no further then the QNAP TS-409. This four bay RAID NAS server has all the great qualities that would expect out of a QNAP product. With 4 hard drive bays you can chose from just about any RAID format you want or just go with a JBOD and have one massive disk. This system is a great solution for those wanting to secure their data while at the same time looking for a low power, low noise server for hosting all of their media.

We complain all the time that requiring a PC to be running in order to stream your media is just wrong. We love that there are more and more embedded devices that are coming out that are bundling media streaming software. The TS-409 comes with TwonkyMedia, which is basically the de facto media streaming server out there. The 409 also bundles an iTunes Server as well so no matter what your needs are you are basically covered with this storage unit. Years ago storage units were just storage units. These days companies realize they need to offer more to the consumer to attract them.

We have played with the TS-209 which is their 2 bay offering and we can tell you first hand that it is an amazing product. It couldn't be more simple to set it up and within minutes of turning it on you not only have a secure way to backup your data, but you have a very robust media server. The 409 will stream to just about any device capable of dealing with UPnP including the PS3, Xbox 360, PSP, and the Nokia N95. We're sure there will be more added to this list in time.

If you don't have a good system for backing up your data and/or you need a quiet, low power, secure way to stream your media look no further, you just have seen the holy grail of storage solutions.

DivX Connected: Coming to the States Soon

We have been reading about the DSM-330 from back when it was called the DivX GejBox. Well now that it has been released in Europe we have read a ton of really high praise for it and we have been drooling. Check out this great review over at tech.co.uk. They point out that while there are some minor flaws, the need for server software for instance, they come to the conclusion that is leagues above the rest of the market. We have been hearing rumors that Q2 of this year we should see this in the States. With the sad state of media streamers on the market currently we can't wait to give this a whirl. We are in the middle of doing our Popcorn Hour Networked Media Tank evaluation and while it seems better then most of the devices we have tried out, and we have reviewed a ton, there are still some basic issues that make us hope that the DSM-330 is all that and a bag of chips.

We'll let you know when we hear of a firm date for the DSM-330's launch, but I'm sure you could just keep your window open and listen for our screams of excitement.

Popcorn Hour Networked Media Tank Unboxing

We have been waiting for the opportunity to get our hands on the Networked Media Tank for a long time and today it finally arrived. This is from a company called Popcorn Hour and they have been getting great reviews. Before we dive into the meat of the product ( we don't want to be too hasty ) we thought we would do the obligatory unboxing photo shoot for you. We have just started testing it out and we can already say that it is living up to the hype that we had been reading about. OK enough of that, lets get to the photos.



Continue reading: "Popcorn Hour Networked Media Tank Unboxing"

LaCie LaCinema Premmier USB HDD Media Streamer

LaCie has been making great external hard drives for a long time now and have always produced quality products. It looks like they got tired of just making storage hard drives and have decided to add another media streaming hard drive to the market.

The great thing about getting one of these media streaming hard drives these days is the storage capacity. The LaCinema comes in 3 different sizes( 500GB, 750GB, 1TB ). With the size of movies being around 4GB and up this will allow you to store a lot of movies on one of these suckers. There are hook ups in the back to output in Component, Composite and S-Video. No HDMI for you HDTV HDMI freaks, but it does have 1080i upscaling so you do have that. It can output audio over Optical and Coax.
Continue reading: "LaCie LaCinema Premmier USB HDD Media Streamer"

Asus WL-HDD Media Streaming Hard Drive Review

Asus has joined the ranks of companies offering a hard drive streaming product. The new WL-HDD2.5 allows you to add a standard 2.5 IDE drive to your network via either a wired connection or wirelessly. While this seems to be a Windows only device it is still a pretty sweet system. Since it uses Samba we suspect this will work with other operating systems, but the configuration needs to be done on a Windows box so you will at least need one to start the process of adding this to your network.

The WL-HDD can use either WEP or WPA security to hook into your network. We are glad they added WPA, we are still amazed how many companies just refuse to use it, even though they know of the problems with WEP. Call us security crazy, but why use a protocol that has known vulnerabilities when there is a much more secure option in WPA just sitting there.

They have also included a UPnP server so this will be perfect for someone wanting to add a low power media streamer to their house to use with say their PS3 or Xbox 360. No need to have your power hungry computer on all the time. Put a high capacity 2.5" hard drive in here and you have a pretty sweet network streamer. We aren't sure if there will be any problems with transfer speeds as we have yet to read a review of this. There also doesn't seem to be any information on how to buy this yet either. So we will keep hunting and let you know what we find.

Emtec new Cube -R Media Streaming Hard Drive

We here at Networking Audio Video love multi-function devices and we love nothing better then a cool hard drive that has media streaming capabilities. The Emtec Movie Cube -R is more then just a run of the mill media streaming hard drive, it is a full fledged media streaming device. Emtec has always been a company that had cool innovative products, but we really love the prospect of their forthcoming Movie Cube -R.

Like most hard drives that stream media the Movie Cube has an internal hard drive that will store all of your media and let you play it on your TV. The nice thing about this device is it also has video in allowing you to record off of your TV, which is a great addition to this niche. The included remote allows you to choose what actions you want to do, record off the TV, playback a movie off the internal drive, or view photos off of your camera. Continue reading: "Emtec new Cube -R Media Streaming Hard Drive"

Princeton 500GB Media Streaming Hard Drive

Princeton Technology is set to release another media streaming hard drive onto the market. This is a 500GB drive that you can hook up to your network and it provides an iTunes server as well as all of the DLNA capabilities that you would expect from a device like this. For good measure they have even added an extra USB port on the back to use for a printer or to chain another USB drive to it.

One thing we constantly blog about here is off loading our media servers from our PC to these small, quiet, low power devices. We would much rather stream everything from something like this rather then leaving our power hungry and loud PC on all the time.

We have been seeing more and more units like this and it seems that companies are starting to really catch on that more and more people have home networks and they aren't satisfied with your basic USB drive. They want something you can hook up to the network and that is available to everyone.

This won't available in the States just yet as it is set for a Japanese release later this month, but if we hear of it hitting our shores you can be sure that we will snatch one up. via engadget

AirLive Media Hard Drive With Built in BitTorrent Client

Well another media hard drive has been announced, this one from a company called AirLive, and we couldn't be more excited. We have said it time and time again that one of our biggest problems with using BitTorrent is the fact that you have to leave your computer on for hours while your file is downloaded. If it happens to be a big file your computer could be on for days. What bothers us is the amount of electricity that gets wasted.

Well with these BitTorrent enabled hard drives you can have a low power device do all your downloading for you while your energy hungry PC can stay in the off position. Another great benefit of this is the fact that once your download completes it will be available to any computer on your network.

Unlike some of the other BitTorrent enabled hard drives out there this one will allow you to use a SATA drive instead of the older IDE format. You can get a much larger, faster and cheaper drive if you go the SATA route so we love that they have listened to the public and allowed you to use either format in this new product*.

With the big media companies contemplating using BitTorrent for distributing some of their content these types of hard drives are going to become more and more popular. We are huge fans of the idea of having specialized devices in your home take care of things like this for you.

So you can have a BitTorrent hard drive running all day and use a program like Ted to stay current with all of your favorite shows. Hopefully the big media companies will realize this is the future or content distribution and embrace it.

* hard drive not included

Digital Cowboy Media Streaming Hard Drive

And yet another great media hard drive is out in the wild and this one looks like the best one yet! The Movie Cowboy is from a company called Digital Cowboy and it looks like it does just about everything. From playing HD content via HDMI at full 1080p to including a plethora of network servers( UPnP,SAMBA,NFS,FTP ) this has just about everything you could want.

It seems to us that Digital Cowboy sat back, watched what everyone else did and checked out what worked and what didn't and produced what seems to be the perfect little device. Just check out the different formats this puppy supports:

Supported Protocols

Video	Audio	Image
AVI	MP3	PNG
XviD	WMA	JPEG
DivX	OGG	BMP
DivX HD	WAV
WMV	AAC
WMV HD	M4A
MPEG-1/2/4
ISO
IFO
VOB
VEVO

We haven't seen any interface screenshots yet, but assuming they haven't produced a horrid user experience we see this as a great option for people looking for a simple yet fully functional media streaming device for their home. Looking over the specs we really can't see anything that would make us think this would fall short in any category.

Unfortunately it is only for sale in Asia currently so we can only hope that it makes it to the rest of the world soon. We for one will be buying one as soon as we can.

We'll have more info hopefully in the future as soon as some hands on reviews come in from Asia.

QNAP BitTorrent Enabled NAS: TS-109 Pro Turbo Station

QNAP is about set to release what could just be the best thing since sliced bread with their TS-109 Pro Turbo Station. For any of us that have struggled with the concept of leaving your main PC on all the time so that it can handle all of the networked devices you have in your house the TS-109 could just be the answer.

Currently we use our main PC for so many music streaming servers and BitTorrent clients that we can never really turn it off without bringing down just about every device in our house. What we have been trying to setup in the office is a low power device that we can offload some of services to so we aren't reliant on our PC so much.

The TS-109 is one of those all in one hard drives that we have been seeing more and more of lately. The TS-109 seems to have just about everything you could need in a small form factor. For starters it can handle up to a 1TB drive internally. While that is nice, with the way movie file sizes are growing with HD now that won't be enough for everyone. That is why the nice people over at QNAP have added USB and eSATA ports to the back of this bad boy. And with Q-RAID 1 support you can secure your data from drive failure also. It also sports the ability to act as an iTunes server for anyone that wants to stream iTunes music but again doesn't want to have to leave their PC on all the time.

QNAP is also pushing the idea that this is a "no noise" device which means you could( and we stress could ) keep this device in your media cabinet and you wouldn't be able to hear the whine of the drive as you download season one of CHiPs while you sit on your couch and your PC is turned off.

So basically what we are trying to say is that when this comes out it will be a great addition to anyones array of storage and network streaming devices.

When this becomes available you can be sure we will pounce on it and give you a detailed review.

via engadget