Over at the D-Link booth I was checking out the new Boxee Box (which looks like a very cool design – two guys from Frog Design were even drooling over it next to me), when it occurred to me that I was still running the Alpha application on my media center at home.

I asked one of the Boxee guys when the new beta application was released – turns out it’s today!

The D-Link device is set for release in Q2 this year and will look great next to your TV. For more on the Boxee beta, check out the Boxee blog.

More Info: Boxee Box

Joining the ranks in today’s CES announcement from Netgear is a new version of the company’s Digital Entertainer media player line.

The Digital Entertainer Express (EVA9100) fits into the product range under the existing Digital Entertainer Elite (EVA9150) and Digital Entertainer Live (EVA2000) and provides full 1080p media streaming from a connected network device as well as attached USB hard drive or other media device.

Internet content is also provides, courtesy of links to Internet Radio (250 stations), Flickr, RSS feeds and other online video sources. A bundled trial of the PlayOn media service provides streaming content from Hulu, Netflix^®, Amazon Video On Demand, BBC iPlayer and CBS.

Two USB ports are provided for connecting to hard drives, digital cameras, mobile phones and camcorders and the Digital Entertainer can aggregate and index content from across multiple devices allowing the user to navigate all content in a single view. Neat! Simple connection to the router is provided, courtesy of a new Push ‘N’ Connect feature which, when combined with Netgear’s USB wireless adaptor allows connection to the router without the need for a password.

File format support is strong, with the usual suspects represented – you can find a full list over at Netgear’s website.

If you’re in the US, expect to see the EVA9100 in stores imminently at an MSRP of $229.

Whilst the new LaCie Home Server is targeted at small businesses, a perfect partner may well be the company’s new LaCinema Mini HD, a small footprint, high definition digital media player offering wired and wireless (802.11n) access to your digital content, and playback up to full 1080p.

The player comes equipped with HDMI output for audio and video and a wide range of format support, including MKV, AVC, DivX and many more. Unlike other players announced this week, the LaCinema Mini packs 500GB of storage in its small chassis and will be available later in the year from £259.

LONDON, UK, Wednesday 6th January 2010 – LaCie today unveiled LaCinema Mini HD, the all-in-one Wi-Fi High Definition media centre. Its amazingly small and stylish design packs a big punch, bringing your HD movies, photos and music collections to your widescreen TV in full 1080p resolution.

LaCinema Mini HD bridges the gap between the computer and entertainment worlds in full HD quality. Featuring built-in high-speed 802.11n Wi-Fi, LaCinema Mini HD brings a DLNA® media player and server to your home without wires.

Transferring content to the LaCinema Mini HD is easy through the bus-powered USB connection for maximum transfer speeds, or by connecting the drive to a home network. Users can conveniently load files wirelessly from their computer or via the Ethernet connection.

“The new LaCinema Mini HD offers a full-featured media centre by combining high storage capacity, compact design, and seamless store-and-play functionality,” commented Salem Tirane, Digital Home Product Manager. “Users will benefit from large HD video format compatibility and the convenience of built-in wireless N streaming.”

Playing movies is as simple as connecting the included HDMI video cable and selecting the wireless network. The drive is instantly ready to play content stored on its internal hard disk, attached USB drive or networked PC, Mac, or NAS (network-attached storage).

LaCinema Mini renders full HD 1080p movies in uncompromising quality on TVs and makes any movie, photo or music file accessible at your fingertips. Thanks to an extensive list of supported codec’s, LaCinema Mini HD permits seamless playback of MKV, AVC, DivX and many more files on TVs. It is even possible to display album cover art and to create music-accompanied slideshows.

Encased in the latest minimalist design from Neil Poulton, LaCinema Mini HD is a fusion of art, simplicity and technology that can fits perfectly into any TV setup. Since it is also easy to carry, LaCinema Mini HD is ready to play back entire digital libraries anywhere, whether at a friend’s house or at a holiday party.

Availability

LaCinema Mini HD is available in 500 GB capacity in Europe and will be available worldwide later this year through the LaCie Online Store, LaCie Reseller+, and LaCie Corner, starting at the suggested retail price of £259. For more information, visit www.lacie.com/uk.

D-Link today announced a new digital media player at CES 2010. The Pebble streams music, video and photos from external hard drives, SD/XM/Flash memory cards, network attached storage (NAS) devices, PCs or the Internet.   An optional dongle is available for wireless 802.11n connectivity.

Details are limited at this point, but the press shot shows another kooky form factor (continuing the trend set by the Boxee Box). The company promises:

When attached to a home network – either wired or wireless — the D-Link Pebble accepts media files from any PC on the network or NAS device, and allows playback on the entertainment center TV and stereo with high-resolution quality and crystal clear sound.  The intuitive graphical user interface (GUI) makes user navigation quick and point-click-and-play easy.

The USB 2.0 ports support an external hard drive, thumbdrives, various memory card formats and a USB wireless dongle.  HDMI 1.3 and analog video output and composite audio also are built into the Pebble for the ultimate viewing and listening experience.

Price is slated at $119.99 with the product available in the US later in the year. We’ll dig down and find out more later in the week.

CES 2010 will be known for two notable returns – the re-emergence of the tablet as a viable computing platform (“Well, if Apple are doing one, maybe Gates was right, huh?”) albeit with a more focused usage model, and secondly, two potentially breakthrough digital media receivers in the form of D-Link’s Boxee Box and Syabas’ Popbox.

Both combine fantastic file format support, high definition network streaming, strong online content from credible publishers, an attractive UI and most importantly, a relatively low price.

We covered the announcement of the Boxee box a few weeks back, and this week it’s the turn of Syabas, makers of the Popcorn Hour, to announce their new device.

Let’s cover the basics – Popbox is a small, cheap ($129) network media player with an open development platform, SDK and a planned app store. Content can be streamed to the device over the local network, pulled from online content providers as well as from an attached USB device. As you’d expect from the makers of the Popcorn Hour, format support is plentiful:

Video File Containers

MPEG1/2/4 Elementary (M1V, M2V, M4V),  MPEG1/2 PS (M2P, MPG, DAT, VOB), MPEG2 Transport Stream (TS, TP, TRP, M2T, M2TS, MTS),  AVI, ASF, WMV, Matroska (MKV),  MOV (H.264), MP4, RMP4

Video Codecs

XVID SD/HD,  MPEG-1, MPEG-2 MP@HL, MPEG-4.2 ASP@L5, 720p, 1-point GMC, MPEG-4.10 (H.264), BP@L3, MP@L4.0, HP@L4.0, HP@L4.1, WMV9, MP@HL, SMPTE 421M (VC-1), MP@HL, AP@L3

Audio File Containers

AAC, M4A, MPEG audio (MP1, MP2, MP3, MPA), WAV, WMA, FLAC, OGG

Audio Codecs

Dolby Digital, DTS, WMA, WMA Pro, MPEG-1 Layer 1, 2, 3, MPEG-4 AAC-LC, MPEG-4 HE-AAC, MPEG-4 BSAC, LPCM, FLAC, OGG Vorbis

Photo Formats

JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF

You won’t find hundreds of connectors on the box (handy for a mainstream device) but just the right ones. HDMI (supporting up to 1080p), Component video, S/PDIF Optical and Stereo Analogue Audio. Plus a USB socket for connecting external hard drives, digital cameras, camcorders and mobile phones with mini USB.

So far, so 2009 right? Well, Syabas have a couple of other tricks up their sleeves and they’re tricks that may just secure the success of the product if the features prove popular. I mentioned the SDK and open development platform earlier – the company have also announced partnerships with 20 application and content partners to provide features for the device. The partner list is niche, but there are some great selections in there, including:

• Internet Movie Database: (IMDB) A video search engine that supplies the metadata that integrates a consumer’s video collection with the corresponding movie’s artwork.
• Internet Video Archive: The entertainment industry’s leading aggregator of movie and TV trailers, game previews and music videos. The channel features 500,000 unique video assets from over 1,200 content providers
• Photobucket: The premiere site on the Internet for uploading, sharing, linking and finding photos, videos and graphics
• Twitter: A free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables consumers to send and read messages up to 140 characters in length

• Twonky: Streams music, photos and videos to compatible devices in the home
• FrameChannel: Offers over 1000 RSS-based content widgets in 12 different languages including everything from sports scores, to stock quotes, weather and news, photos, status updates from your favorite social networks and more
• Revision3: Creates and produces original programming for passionate, committed fans who want to watch shows about technology, movies, video games and music that entertain, educate and help to expand their life experiences
• SHOUTcast: A radio directory that allows Popcorn Hour owners to access more than 32,000 professional and community programmed radio stations that span more than 30 genres of music, news, talk, public, community and world programming

The Popbox will have its work cut out competing with the Boxee Box, and millions of consumers all over the world remain to be convinced that they need another set-top box under their TV, even cool ones like these – especially with the big guns at Sony, Samsung and LG promising online everything courtesy of network connected TVs and Blu-ray players. Those guys have huge marketing budgets and omnipresent retail distribution, an essential element in educating consumers of the benefits of getting connected.

I’m no expert here – I’ve tried set-top boxes/DMRs and have now switched to a mini-HTPC with an Atom/ION combo running Windows Media Center for all of my TV, Video and Music content. It’s working really well, so maybe the Second Coming of Media Center is ahead of us! However, with two very decent, branded boxes with strong community support behind them, plus the rumours of Apple attempting to tie up a host of content deals in Hollywood (all of which has to get on to the TV somehow), maybe the digital media receiver, network media player, set-top box has a future yet.

More Info: Popbox

Syabas Announces Popbox for Big Screen Everything

New, Affordable Over-the-Top Settop Box Features an Open App Platform to Bridge the Gap Between an HDTV, a Home Network and the Internet

LAS VEGAS –(Business Wire)– Jan 05, 2010 CES Unveiled Table 9

Syabas, a global provider of over-the-top settop software and hardware and makers of the award-winning Popcorn Hour C-200, today announced Popbox, a small, $129 open platform settop box that streams music, movies, photos, games, social media updates and more to today’s HDTVs. Popbox supports just about every audio and video file type and recognizes content from the Internet, a personal computer and a USB-attached storage device such as a Flip Video™ HD camcorder or an external hard drive.

What separates Popbox from its competitors is its ability to handle virtually any file and content type, its ease-of-use and open development platform, which allows media companies to rapidly develop, deploy and monetize a wide range of interactive high definition applications and content. Those applications and content may then be given away or sold on the Popapps Portal. Developers can sign up for the program at www.popbox.com.

In a separate release, also issued today, Syabas announced that it has added a number of new content and application partners including:

• Netflix (feature-length movies and television shows)
• Twitter (social networking and micro blogging service)
• FunSpot (interactive videogames)
• Crunchyroll (Japanese anime and Asian entertainment site)
• SHOUTcast (32,000 professional and community programmed radio stations)

Popbox also features a new, easy-to-navigate user interface (UI) that was designed by Dewey Reid, who won an Emmy award in 2004 for the UI he created for the Moxi Media Center. The UI enables users to browse content from a wide variety of Internet-based content channels, as well as a home networked media library with full metadata-based navigation. Metadata partners include Internet Movie Database (IMDB) for movies.

“I strongly believe that this year over-the-top settop boxes will go from the niche enthusiast to the mainstream consumer,” said Alex Limberis, chief operating officer of Syabas. “Popbox is perfectly positioned to deliver everything from movies to photos, to music to games to Tweets in an inexpensive, easy-to-use platform that will drive this market forward in 2010.”

Syabas has been developing software for connected entertainment devices for companies including HP, Netgear, I-O DATA, Pinnacle Systems and Viewsonic since 2001. In 2007, the company began shipping Popcorn Hour, its first over-the-top (OTT) settop box that has over the last two years earned a number of industry Editor’s Choice awards. Popbox is expected to be available in the United States in March and will be the company’s first product available through the retail channel.

Availability

Popbox is expected to be available in March for $129. For more information on the Popbox, please visit www.popbox.com.

Specifications

PopBox v1.0 Features:

Video Outputs

• HDMI (1080p/720p/480p)
• Component Video (Y/Pb/Pr)

Audio Outputs

• Stereo Analog Audio
• S/PDIF Optical

Content Services such as

• Netflix 2.0
• Photobucket
• Shoutcast
• Revision3

Developer Services

• Flash Lite 3.1 support
• PopBox SDK
• Application Store (Popapp Center)

Video File Containers

MPEG1/2/4 Elementary (M1V, M2V, M4V)

MPEG1/2 PS (M2P, MPG, DAT, VOB)

MPEG2 Transport Stream (TS, TP, TRP, M2T, M2TS, MTS)

AVI, ASF, WMV

Matroska (MKV)

MOV (H.264), MP4, RMP4

Video Codecs

XVID SD/HD

MPEG-1

MPEG-2 MP@HL

MPEG-4.2 ASP@L5, 720p, 1-point GMC

MPEG-4.10 (H.264)

BP@L3

MP@L4.0

HP@L4.0

HP@L4.1

WMV9

MP@HL

SMPTE 421M (VC-1)

MP@HL

AP@L3

Audio File Containers

AAC, M4A, MPEG audio (MP1, MP2, MP3, MPA)

WAV, WMA, FLAC, OGG

Audio Codecs

Dolby Digital

DTS

WMA, WMA Pro

MPEG-1 Layer 1, 2, 3

MPEG-4 AAC-LC

MPEG-4 HE-AAC

MPEG-4 BSAC

LPCM

FLAC

OGG Vorbis

Photo formats

JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF

DRM

Cardea DRM (WMDRM-ND)

Janus DRM (WMDRM-PD)

Content Security

• HDCP 1.2
• CGMS-A

Remote Control

• IR Remote Control

Weight/Size/Power

• 15.9Oz [450g]
• 8.0” [203mm] X 6.0” [154mm] X 1.25” [32mm]
• AC-DC adaptor
  • Input 100~240V AC, 50~60Hz
  • Output 5V DC, 3A max

About Syabas

Syabas, headquartered in Fremont, California and with facilities in China and Malaysia, was founded in 2001 and develops software for inexpensive wired/wireless digital home entertainment settop boxes that are sold around the world. Syabas’ product family, which includes the award-winning Popcorn Hour, A-110, C-200 and just announced Popbox, enables users to access content such as high- and standard-definition video, music, photos and services, such as BBC, CBS, CCTV, CNET TV, CNN, NBC, Photobucket, Revision3, SHOUTcast, Veoh and Vuze, over a local network and the Internet. For more information on Syabas and their products, please visit www.popcornhour.com.

Popbox Launches With 20 New Content and Application Partners

Variety of Content and Applications Bring Depth and Breadth to Next-Generation Over-the-Top Settop Box

LAS VEGAS –(Business Wire)– Jan 05, 2010 CES Unveiled Table 9

Syabas, a global provider of over-the-top settop software and hardware and makers of the award winning Popcorn Hour C-200 and just unveiled Popbox, today announced 20 new content and application partners have joined the Popbox platform.

The new partners include:

• BlipTV: Distributes 48,000 independently-produced Web shows
• Clicker: An Internet TV guide that catalogs all broadcast programming online, along with TV-quality Web originals, making it easy to discover what’s available to watch (and what isn’t) online, where to watch it and what’s worth watching
• Crunchyroll: An online video service and community that offers full-length episodes and movies of the very best in Japanese anime and Asian entertainment
• Eyecon: Enables consumers to connect to their content and seamlessly route it to any compatible playback device in the home
• FunSpot: A casual gaming service that offers everything from multiplayer board, arcade and card games to puzzles, strategy and quizzes
• Internet Movie Database: (IMDB) A video search engine that supplies the metadata that integrates a consumer’s video collection with the corresponding movie’s artwork.
• Internet Video Archive: The entertainment industry’s leading aggregator of movie and TV trailers, game previews and music videos. The channel features 500,000 unique video assets from over 1,200 content providers
• Livestation: Live video streams of international news channels to give you more choice and perspective wherever you are.
• MalaysiaKini: An independent media organization that streams Malaysian video news and views
• Mediafly: An Internet service for managing digital media shows such as video and podcasts and downloading them to many types of devices
• MetaChannels from Channels.com: A video aggregation and distribution service that enables device manufacturers and application developers to integrate the best shows on the Web into their product offerings
• Netflix: The world’s largest online movie rental service, with more than 11 million subscribers
• NextNewNetworks: Producer of online television networks that creates, packages, brands, markets and syndicates some of the Web’s most popular regularly scheduled and episodic programming
• Photobucket: The premiere site on the Internet for uploading, sharing, linking and finding photos, videos and graphics
• PicoChannel: A service that makes it easy for people to share their personal photos and videos with friends and family on connected TVs and picture frames
• Swarmcast: Transforms the Internet into a reliable medium for distributing high-quality video enables content providers to engage global audiences through high-quality viewing experiences
• Twitter: A free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables consumers to send and read messages up to 140 characters in length
• Twonky: Streams music, photos and videos to compatible devices in the home
• Waterfront Entertainment: Develops casual games for interactive TV, Web, mobile and emerging platforms
• WeatherBug: The leading provider of weather information services that manages and operates a proprietary network of over 8,000 WeatherBug Tracking Stations

Additional partners already announced include:

• CCTV: The largest media content and television programming producer in China
• FrameChannel: Offers over 1000 RSS-based content widgets in 12 different languages including everything from sports scores, to stock quotes, weather and news, photos, status updates from your favorite social networks and more
• Revision3: Creates and produces original programming for passionate, committed fans who want to watch shows about technology, movies, video games and music that entertain, educate and help to expand their life experiences
• SHOUTcast: A radio directory that allows Popcorn Hour owners to access more than 32,000 professional and community programmed radio stations that span more than 30 genres of music, news, talk, public, community and world programming

“It’s great to finally see an over-the-top settop box that’s able to do more than just play photos, video and music to their television sets,” said Michael Lantz, CEO of Accedo Broadband, the company behind the FunSpot brand. “Thanks to the open nature of the Popbox platform, it is easy and straightforward for companies like Accedo to create engaging and attractive new ways for people to interact with others through their television sets.”

Popbox enables consumers to enjoy a wide assortment of content including blockbuster movies, Internet radio, home videos, photos, music, games and Tweets from their PC, the Internet or an attached USB storage device on their HDTVs. The user interface, designed by Emmy Award-winning designer Dewey Reid, allows users to easily navigate a wide variety of content channels, browse and playback multimedia content from their computer and interact with others through social networking sites and interactive multiplayer games.

“The openness of the Popbox platform is now enabling content providers and application developers to move beyond simple audio, video and photo playback and into more interactive realms such as multiplayer gaming and social networking,” said Alex Limberis, chief operating officer of Syabas. “From companies making applications that allow users to access media from any home PC to developers making channels that enable consumers to enjoy content from a multitude of sources, it’s amazing to see the sheer number and variety of developers understanding the value that the Popbox platform can bring to their brands.”

Announced in May of this year under the DAVID platform name, the Popbox developer’s kit consists of a software development kit (SDK) and an over-the-top settop device SDK that incorporates the ability to develop and deploy applications to the company’s app store portal. Developers can sign up for the program at www.popbox.com.

Availability

Popbox is expected to be available in March for $129. For more information on the Popbox, please visit www.popbox.com.

We’re coming up to the last week of the year, and that can only mean one thing…. yes, it’s time for the third annual We Got Served Reader Awards 2009!

2009 has been a busy year in the home server world, with many new manufacturers releasing hardware, and new community add-ins released which do a great job of providing new features for the platform. As usual, this year’s awards will be judged by a reader vote, from a shortlist nominated by the WGS writers and forum moderators – but before we announce the nominees, let’s remind ourselves who won last year’s awards:

Best Windows Home Server Hardware 2008: Fujitsu-Siemens SCALEO Home Server

A surprising result last year, as I was convinced that Tranquil PC would claim the prize with their excellent SQA-5H, which was smaller than FSC’s model and came with more drives. But, the WGS readers spoke!

Best Digital Media Receiver 2008: Xbox 360

Second prize wasn’t enough to stop HP cancelling their MediaSmart Connect line early in 2009, but it was Microsoft’s (still) excellent Xbox 360 which took the plaudits last year.

Best Windows Home Server Software 2008: TwonkyMedia Server

Even without a standalone add-in for system builders last year, Twonky still managed to walk away with the award for their excellent DLNA compliant media server software.

Best Windows Home Server Add-In 2008: Grid Junction

Your prize for 2008’s best add-in went to Kentdome Technologies for their Grid Junction UPS add-in for Windows Home Server.

So to 2009, where we’ve seen a new crop of add-in developers step into the ring, new manufacturers release Windows Home Server hardware, and the category begin to expand and grow. To be eligible for nomination, the product (or major update to the product) must have been released in this calendar year (from Jan 1st 2009) – there are always old favourites we want to vote for, but the awards are for this year’s products!

Ladies and gentlemen, here are the nominations for the We Got Served Reader Awards 2009!

Best Small Windows Home Server Hardware 2009

A plethora of choice in the category this year, with a variety of home server form factors emerging. In fact, we’ve seen two distinct format emerge, the larger 4+ bay multi-drive home server as well as the smaller, cheaper 1-2 bay systems. As a result, it’s only fair that we split the hardware category into two, as each form factor has a specific target audience and feature set.

In the new Small Hardware category (1-2 bays) we saw great new models enter the market from manufacturers such as HP with their LX195 MediaSmart Server, a beautiful piece of styling from RipNAS, VIA’s Artigo A2000 barebones system which was a compact 2 drive model, as well as the ASUS Home Server TS Mini, which appeared this month. It certainly seems as if the cheaper end of the home server market was well served this year, but which model do you think was the best? Feel free to re-read the reviews of each and then place your vote below.

Best Large Windows Home Server Hardware 2009

But 2009 wasn’t just about the little guys! At the other end of the spectrum we saw a lot of activity in the 4+ bay arena too. HP refreshed their EX 490 Series MediaSmart Server line with two new models and found time to release a small business variant in the shape of the X510 Data Vault. They were joined by major competition in the form of Acer, who released the Aspire EasyStore Home Server globally this year, combining great features and sharp pricing. Finally, there’s Lenovo, who surprised us with their IdeaCenter D400 model this year which took a unique look at home server styling.

Best Digital Media Receiver 2009

We expect this category to be closely fought! At the beginning of the year, HDHomeRun finally appeared outside the USA, offering networked TV tuners to the UK and Australasia – a truly excellent product. Popcorn Hour’s C-200 established itself as a firm favourite with media enthusiasts everywhere, but had competition in the form of the Xtreamer Media Player which offered similar features at a low, low price. We were also impressed by the QNAP NMP-1000 which pushed media around our digital homes very well in test.

Best Windows Home Server Software 2009

There hasn’t been too much new news in the commercial software category this year, but we have seen a couple of our favourite community add-ins develop paid-for variants, so they’ll pop across into the commercial category from this year. A good example of this is LightsOut which was released in v1.0 form this week. My Movies for Windows Home Server is a perennial favourite, and also received a number of updates through the year. As usual, Diskeeper and PerfectDisk released enhancements for their disk defragmentation software for Windows Home Server, and both are in with a shout of winning the award. Last year’s winner, TwonkyMedia Server is back, this time with the much-needed standalone media server add-in for the platform. Finally, Time Traveler for Windows Home Server was recently released and offers the ability to rollback to previous version of files and folders stored in your home server’s shared folders.

Best Windows Home Server Add-in 2009

Now we come to the category that’s always the closest fought – who will win your vote for the Best Windows Home Server add-in for 2009? The Windows Home Server platform has continued to grow this year with many more applications appearing, and the quality of those add-ins has also been increasing too.

The WGS team have selected some of their favourites for voting, and they include: @WHSTweet which reports your home server’s status via Twitter, AutoExit 2009 for Windows Home Server, which had a big boost this year with a new version, P80 which allows you to view a wide range of diagnostic information about your home server from the remote website, WHS PHP/MySQL/Wordpress is a trio of add-ins which work together to bring the popular web publishing platform to Windows Home Server, WHS Health, a new add-in which publishes Windows Home Server alerts to your smartphone and finally, WHS BDBB (Windows Home Server Backup Database Backup) which many have found essential in protecting their client backups.  As there has been so many great add-ins this year, we’re also throwing in FirePlay for Windows Home Server, the highly rated remote media streaming client, and finally Advanced Admin Console, which brings a host of additional controls to the Windows Home Server Console. Phew!

If you don’t see your favourite listed in our nominations, then you also have the opportunity to vote for your own choice – but remember, the product should have been released this year, or had a major update released to the public.

As now written in the great WGS tradition, your votes will be counted over the next few days and the award winners will be announced on New Year’s Eve. Good luck and congratulations to all nominees!

QNAP has produced an appealing Multimedia player that can fit in with most any decor.  The hardware is excellent and it has the right connectors for any device you might want to plug it into.  The NMP-1000 could use some enhancements on the software side and a lower cost to make it a must-have multimedia device.

Today, I am taking a look at my very first multimedia device, the QNAP NMP-1000.  Well, not actually the first, in that my 2 boys have Xbox 360’s.  These Xbox 360’s are their 24/7 gaming machines, so while I did get hold of one once to see if I could actually configure it as a WMC extender, that was the extent of my multimedia experience with the Xbox 360.

As you might guess, I was quite exited about the prospect of trying out the NMP-1000.  Partly because I am quite interested in seeing how well I could get a multimedia device to work with my WHS, and more importantly, demonstrating the capabilities of such a device to my wife.  The ability to watch movies “On Demand”.  Listen to music on the AV receiver.  And to get all nostalgic looking at the digital pictures we have accumulated over the years.

Dang, I may be able to talk her into getting one of these thingies!

As you can tell, I live in the dark ages!  Actually, I have my little world (the “man” office) with all my computer junk, er, “equipment”, and just about anything else that is digital.  To have the ability to actually make use of our HT setup to watch ripped movies, view pictures, or listen to music makes me feel like a kid again!  Well… almost.

Enough of that.  Let’s get back to business.  As a primer to the NMP-1000, you might want to read my unboxing post before you continue reading this review.

The Company

Who is QNAP?

Mission

QNAP Systems Inc. is the “Quality Network Appliance Provider” and we pledged to become the world’s leading Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Network Video Recorder (NVR) solution provider.

Company

QNAP Systems, Inc. is a privately held company founded in 2004 and is dedicated to bringing world class NAS storage, professional NVR video surveillance, and network video players to consumer, small/medium business, and entry level enterprise market segments. QNAP leverages not only hardware design but also a growing core competency in software engineering that is precisely focused on bringing to market products that offer the highest available performance coupled with outstanding reliability, scalability, and ease of installation and use. QNAP is a multi-national company with headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan, and subsidiary offices in China and the United States.

Core competence

The core of QNAP’s development comes from a group of designers and engineers with extensive research experience and education in the IT and electronics industry. By listening to and sharing with our customers on a daily basis, we enable our core innovation and development to be customer driven.

Products

We apply strict manufacturing standards to ensure the lowest defect rates. Our manufacturing facilities are ISO 9000 certified and our products come with UL, FCC and CE seals. As a responsible and leading edge company, QNAP is actively working on its designs to reduce its environmental impact by meeting and exceeding the regulations of various countries. Regarding this topic, all QNAP products are 100% RoHS compliant. Additionally, we thrive to reduce energy consumption whenever possible. By all means, QNAP wants to provide the highest quality products to protect your most valuable data.

Whilst there’s still no sign of the digital media receiver hitting the mainstream in 2009, manufacturers are still working hard to crack the market by releasing a variety of networked music and video players, some with storage and some without. Iomega’s Screenplay line has been around for a little while, and the move from standalone storage to networked storage with media playback is a simple one for the brand. The Screenplay Director HD is Iomega’s latest offer in the DMR space, offering a choice of 1 and 2 TB networked drives with a host of media features including a wide range of format support, 1080P high definition playback via HDMI, internet content (RSS, Podcast, YouTube et al) and advertised support for torrent files.

What’s in the Box?

The Screenplay Director HD, as you’d expect from Iomega’s top of the line digital media player, comes equipped with a host of cables and connectors:

In the box you’ll find:

Iomega Protection Suite software (via download) :

• Iomega Quik Protect
• Retrospect Express HD (PC)
• Retrospect Express for Mac
• MozyHome Online Backup 2GB Free (PC/Mac)
• McAfee Anti-virus software (PC)

Note that you’ll need to supply your own networking cable if you wish to connect the ScreenPlay Director to your network over Ethernet. Wireless networking options are available, but again, you’ll need to purchase the adaptor separately. The good news, however, is that Iomega do supply an HDMI cable in the box, so no need to rush out and get clobbered by a retailer for a high price, high margin equivalent.

Specifications

The ScreenPlay Director HD supports playback of a decent range of file formats, including:

Video

• MPEG-1
• MPEG-2 (AVI, VOB)
• MPEG-4 (AVI, DivX 3.11, 4.x, 5.x, 6.x, XviD)
• H.264
• WMV
• AVCHD
• VC-1 (SMPTE 421M)

Supported file extensions include: avi, asf, divx, mkv, mov, mp2, mp4, mpe, mpeg, mpg, m4a, m4v, vob, xvid, ifo, iso (DVD ISO), WMV, FLV, TS

Music

• MP3
• AC3 (Dolby Digital Encoding)
• WAV
• OGG
• WMA
• AAC (non-DRM)
• FLAC

Photo

• JPEG
• BMP
• GIF
• PNG
• TIFF

Supported Interfaces

• 10/100 Ethernet for wired network connection
• Wireless Ready support for Iomega WiFi adapters (sold separately)
• USB 2.0 for computer connection and external USB devices
• AV PAL/NTSC — native to 1080i/1080p

]]> http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/11/29/hands-on-iomega-screenplay-director-hd/feed/ 2 http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/11/12/coming-soon-set-top-boxee/ http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/11/12/coming-soon-set-top-boxee/#comments Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:47:46 +0000 Terry Walsh http://www.wegotserved.com/?p=15201

Boxee, the open source, social media center application for Windows, Mac, OSX, Apple TV & Ubuntu Linux today announced the forthcoming release of a new platform – their own set top box.

The Boxee team revealed ahead of their December 7th beta unveiling that they’ve been in talks with several developers about creating a Boxee device, and have signed the first of what they believe could be several partnerships in the next twelve months.

All will be revealed in early December, but for now, here’s their announcement. Exciting stuff.

We launched our public alpha for Mac/Linux in January at CES. During the show we met with several device manufactures interested in embedding Boxee into their existing devices or building a dedicated Boxee device.

I am very happy to announce we have signed our first partnership with a CE company. At this point we can not say more about the partner or the specs of the device, but we can tell you we are working closely with them to make sure we deliver a great Boxee experience on it.

We will show mockups of the box and share more details at our upcoming Boxee Beta Unveiling event in Brooklyn, NY on Dec 7th. RSVP here.

Over the next few years there will be a great change in the way we consume entertainment on our TV. The Internet is (finally) coming to the TV and with it will come a whole new world of content, applications and innovations.

We are building Boxee as a platform that would:

• make it easy for users to consume and find content – no matter what the source
• give content owners, aggregators, and developers the tools to create unique experiences with a variety of business models
• enable CE companies to enhance their Connected devices

This will be the first connected device running Boxee, but the idea is to provide consumers with a way to get Boxee in their living rooms, no matter whether it’s on a Connected TV, game console, set-top box, BluRay player, computer, etc.

Our goal is to be on every Connected device in the living room.

We are very excited about the partnership and looking forward to sharing more at the event.

More Info: Boxee

]]> http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/11/12/coming-soon-set-top-boxee/feed/ 0 http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/11/07/hands-on-apple-tv/ http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/11/07/hands-on-apple-tv/#comments Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:43:11 +0000 Terry Walsh http://www.wegotserved.com/?p=15173

Manufacturer: Apple	Model: Apple TV 160GB
Price: £219 ($229)	Web: Apple

WGS has looked at a number of digital media receivers, but we’ve yet to review Apple’s so called “hobby”, the Apple TV. Steve Jobs has gone on the record to state that the Apple TV is not yet part of the company’s core (no pun intended) business but it’s a product that they continue to tinker with from time to time, most recently with the release of a 3.0 software update for the product.

Perhaps more interestingly, a thriving community of developers has hacked the Apple TV and continue to add improvements and new features to the product. Today’s review will look at the vanilla offering from Apple and over the next few weeks, we’ll look at some of those community enhancements to see if Apple TV really is a viable digital media receiver for your home, or just a half-baked Californian hobby.

What is Apple TV?

Apple TV is a networked media player, which can playback music, video and photos from its internal 160GB hard drive, a PC with iTunes as well as stream online content on demand. If I was from Apple, I’d say:

Apple TV gives you access to an easy-to-navigate world of entertainment. Rent HD movies. Buy HD movies and get iTunes Extras. Buy HD TV shows. Listen to your iTunes music and Internet radio. Even show off your photos. Connect one HDMI cable and, just like that, your TV becomes more than just a TV.

Unlike every other digital media receiver you’ll try, Apple TV is of course hard wired into the Apply eco-system, so it’s tethered to iTunes. Now, I’ve got to tell you, I hate iTunes with a vengeance – I’m forced to use it to get content on to my iPhone and I find it slow, bloated, unwieldy and a pain to use.

What the Apple TV doesn’t do (inexplicably) is serve media from attached network storage devices – it’ll only connect to a PC with iTunes. Which sucks. That said, I’m prepared to give it a go with Apple TV to see what content is available for downloading and streaming, because Apple say:

HD movies. HD TV shows. HD podcasts. HD YouTube videos. With Apple TV, they’re all available on demand. You get instant access to newly released Hollywood hits and popular classic and library titles, including a large selection of on-demand HD movies. And now you can also purchase and watch your favourite TV shows in brilliant HD one day after they air. Or enjoy thousands of free HD podcasts or YouTube videos from around the world.

So, unlike most other digital media receivers around, we may find some decent, high quality video we actually give a stuff about watching. Of course, Apple also promise to show all of your photos on TV, and provide access to your whole music collection through the TV – that is, as long as it’s in the iTunes library.

With Apple TV, iTunes syncs wirelessly to your TV, so your entire music collection can now be played on the best speakers in your house. Use the Genius feature to create new playlists or Genius Mixes, or check out thousands of Internet radio stations that play every genre imaginable. You can also browse and buy music videos on the iTunes Store. And sync songs and videos purchased on Apple TV to your computer and iPod or iPhone.

Your photos deserve a bigger stage. Apple TV puts them on your widescreen TV, where everybody can see them in stunning HD. Select My Photos to browse photos from your Mac or PC. If you use iPhoto, you can find photos organized by Events or Faces. You can also access your Flickr photos or MobileMe Gallery. And you no longer have to huddle around a computer screen to see YouTube videos and podcasts, even in HD — Apple TV plays them big and bold on your TV’s spectacular screen.

Before we even get into the pack, let’s firstly take a step back and review the pricing. Check back at the top of the page and you’ll see a UK price of £219 and a US price of $229. That equates to a £70 premium for the privilege of buying in the UK. Not a great start, guys. Devices like the Popcorn Hour C-200 at $299 offer a wider range of features and formats, but without the internal 160Gb storage so the US pricing is reasonable. For the UK, there are definitely better value options out there.

What’s in the Box?

Ah, the famous Apple box opening experience – actually, the Apple TV isn’t too dramatically packaged, with a simple sleeve revealing a black box which opens up to present the Apple TV device itself and a small remote control.

Annoyingly, for such a premium priced package, Apple have decided to exclude any AV cables and look all you want, but you won’t find an Ethernet cable either. So when they say “Connect one HDMI cable and, just like that, your TV becomes more than just a TV”, what they mean is “Buy a HDMI cable ‘cos we’re to cheap to throw one in”. That’s an unacceptably poor customer experience, Apple. Fortunately, WGS has a few HDMIs and Ethernet cables stashed away, so no need for us to traipse all the way back to the Apple Store to buy high margin cables, unlike thousands of other customers, I’m sure!

First Looks

White polycarbonate? Check. Brushed aluminium? Check. Small white LED to denote power? Check. Okay, you know the score – the Apple TV looks great. Give them their dues, Apple are untouched when it comes to industrial design aesthetics and the Apple TV is small enough to tuck away in your TV cabinet but cute enough to leave out on show.

You’ll be hard pressed to find any buttons and controls on the hardware itself, but flip the Apple TV around and you’ll find a host of AV connectors at the rear, including HDMI, Component Video, Analogue and Optical Digital Audio ports. A power connector, USB 2.0 port and Ethernet (10/100, not Gigabit) socket completes the line up. If you don’t have your lounge wired for data, then the Apple TV comes with an 802.11n wireless connection built in. Allegedly good enough for video (as long as you have an 802.11n router) but I’d always play it safe and go for a powerline data connection.

]]> http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/11/07/hands-on-apple-tv/feed/ 14 http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/10/24/iomega-launch-three-new-screenplay-digital-receivers/ http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/10/24/iomega-launch-three-new-screenplay-digital-receivers/#comments Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:10:12 +0000 Terry Walsh http://www.wegotserved.com/?p=14789

Iomega this week announced the availability of three new digital media receivers in Europe, offering support for a wide range of digital standard and high definition video formats, access to online video content and integrated storage.

ScreenPlay Director HD Media Player

The new ScreenPlay Director HD Media Player offers full 1080p high definition playback (24fps) and up to 2TB of storage to save all your multimedia files. Multiple video formats are supported for playback including DIVX, H.264, WMV and MKV.

An ethernet port is fitted to allow connection to your home network for media streaming, and a wi-fi module is also available as an option. The player is DLNA compliant to enable compatibility with a wide range of devices including Windows 7 PCs, and Windows Home Servers running TwonkyMedia Server.

Online content is supplied by YouTube, Flickr, Shoutcast Internet radio, RSS feeds and podcasts. You can also configure the ScreenPlay Director to add other RSS feeds and podcasts. With three USB 2.0 ports onboard, you can attach other external storage devices, a camera, flash drives, or a WiFi adapter.

The 1TB model is available now for £179, with the 2TB coming in at £309.

ScreenPlay™ Plus HD Media Player

Next in line is the ScreenPlay™ Plus HD Media Player, which is available in 500GB and 1TB configurations for £119 and £129 respectively. This offers native 720p and 1080i high definition playback and can support formats including MP3, AC3 (Dolby® Digital Encoding), WAV, WMA, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (AVI-VOB), MPEG-4 (AVI/DivX/XViD) and JPEG.

Connection to your TV is courtesy of a HDMI connection, and a USB port is also provided for connecting additional storage and peripherals.

ScreenPlay TV Link Director

Finally, the ScreenPlay TV Link Director will be released next month, offering all of the features of the ScreenPlay Director HD Media Player without the storage (which would be my preferred option).

The TV Link Director looks thin enough to tuck away neatly in your TV cabinet, and is likely to cost in the region of £99 when released.

More Info: Iomega.com

]]> http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/10/24/iomega-launch-three-new-screenplay-digital-receivers/feed/ 0 http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/10/19/wd-tv-live-high-definition-media-player/ http://www.wegotserved.com/2009/10/19/wd-tv-live-high-definition-media-player/#comments Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:40:00 +0000 Terry Walsh http://www.wegotserved.com/?p=14411

Western Digital have announced the latest model in their WD TV range. The WD TV Live is a small footprint, high definition digital media receiver which outputs video to 1080p via HDMI.

As usual with these latest swathe of DMRs, WD TV Live plays a wide range of music, video and photo formats from across your home network, as well as online content from the likes of YouTube, Flickr Pandora and Live365. Content can also be played directly from USB attached cameras, hard drives and other devices.

Supported formats as follows:

Video – AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9

Photo – JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG

Audio – MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS

Playlist – PLS, M3U, WPL

Subtitle – SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI

The WD TV Live is shipping now at $149.99/£99.99

More Info: WD TV Live | Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK)

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