Digital Media Receivers/Adapters
It's not happening as fast as many experts predicted a few years back, but more and more consumers are streaming music and video from their computers to their TVs and speaker systems. It's an idea whose time has obviously come; after all, why download all that great media content to your hard drive if you can't watch and listen to it through your pricey HDTV and surround sound system?
Fortunately, it's pretty easy these days to network your computer and home entertainment system, whether through a simple DVI or S-video cable or through a dedicated digital media receiver or adapter. Here are a few products designed to make it easy.
The Linksys Wireless-B media adapter is a straightforward unit that connects to your home entertainment system on one end (via standard electronics cables) and communicates wirelessly with your Wi-Fi router and computer on the other. The adapter lets you view digital photos and listen to music through your components, although it notably does not support video formats. HP's MediaSmart Receiver takes the concept to the next level, with the ability to play content from every single computer on your wireless network. That's a terrific option if you haven't bothered to consolidate all your video or audio files onto a single hard drive, but have them spread out among several computers. The MediaSmart Receiver also lets you download digital movies and listen to Internet radio directly from your HDTV.
Apple fans can turn to the Airport Express to stream digital music from their iTunes library to the stereo, or Apple TV for more robust video applications. And PC owners can choose from plenty of media extenders designed to work in tandem with the Windows Media Center feature found within XP and Vista operating systems. Among the options are the aforementioned HP MediaSmart Receiver, the Linksys DMA2100 and DMA2200 (the latter includes a DVD player), the D-Link DSM-750, and even the Xbox 360 game console. Users who really want to be plugged in can opt for an HP MediaSmart HDTV--a full-fledged television that's custom designed to support digital networking.
Explore more entertainment networking products here.
-- Rivers Janssen
Kevitivity on September 19, 2008 at 04:26 PM
I use a Sony PS3 to stream movies, pictures and music from my Mac to my entertainment center. The PS3 can talk natively to most media extenders, streaming from a Mac requires additional software. I use Nullriver's MediaLink (nullriver.com) to accomplish this.
Gajim on September 19, 2008 at 04:42 PM
Mention the Xbox and not the PS3?
Just run the free TVersity Media Server sw on whatever networked Windows PCs you want and you can access and play audio, pictures and video via the PS3. Works great.
DC on September 19, 2008 at 04:47 PM
Mac Mini plus big hard drive plus toslink optical cable plus Perpetual Technologies DAC plus all my CD's ripped in AIFF format equals a pretty cool high-end CD jukebox.
Anon on September 19, 2008 at 11:02 PM
I highly recommend the Popcorn Hour. In addition to serving up just about any flavor of web and local video content on your entertainment center, it is network attached storage, an FTP Server and BitTorrent client.
brian levine on September 20, 2008 at 11:18 AM
I too use the PS3 with TVersity to stream from my PC. Works great and includes a blu-ray player. Did anyone mention it also plays games?
Cooling fan is a little loud though.
Bruce Lidl on September 22, 2008 at 03:07 PM
I'm not a neutral observer, but if you are a fan of DivX video and online content, you should check out the D-Link DivX Connected DSM-330 (available on Amazon of course). Wireless, HD, and now it can stream Hulu, YouTube, etc as well.
Bruce
DivX, Inc.
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