Items tagged with Media streamer
Update 11/23/18: This deal expired Wednesday night but you have find other good deals on items like Amazon's Fire TV for just $25 and more in our Black Friday Deals Guide and Holiday Gift Guide. If you're looking for a solid "do everything" Android TV-based media streamer, it doesn't get much better than the NVIDIA SHIELD TV. For starters, the SHIELD TV is a potent 4K streamer that is highly extensible. In addition, NVIDIA has continually updated the console over its lifespan via frequent software updates. Today, Best Buy -- via its eBay Store -- is selling the SHIELD TV for $139.99. That price is reasonable enough, but eBay is currently running a 15 percent off promotion on anything that you...
Read more...
Ah, Boxee Box. The little media streaming box that could. The D-Link box, which has officially been on sale for a few months now, has been improved on a fairly regular basis. A ton of new features have been added in recent months, and this month's no different. Version 1.1 of the Boxee Box firmware has just shipped, revamping a lot of stuff under the hood. Things like? Things like support for 16 new languages, bookmark + history in the browser, a revised Movie trailer library, new seek bar for playback of the on-screen display, a new share menu that allows users to choose where messages go, and faster browser / web page loading. There's even support for NFO files, too. Some users of the new firmware,...
Read more...
The media streamer segment has boomed in a big, big way. It wasn't long ago that DVRs were the only boxes residing beneath the television, but now, many are giving up cable altogether in favor of a streaming set-top box from Roku, Popcorn Hour, D-Link, etc. Xtreamer is a company looking to take on the big boys, and their newest box looks like it has the muscle to do just that. It's the "Ultra," and it's getting ready to officially debut in the coming days. Unlike some weaker units, this machine is powered up and ready to handle all of the 1080p content you could ever attempt to push through. It's relying on a dual-core Atom D525 processor (or NVIDIA's Ion 2), and since it's basically a full-scale...
Read more...
AC Ryan may not be the household name that Seagate and Western Digital are, but it's an up-and-coming media streamer outfit that actually has a fairly impressive list of new gear. The company's newest two include the Playon! HD2 and Playon! HD Mini2. Both are Full HD Media Players, with each being the first to feature the latest 1185 Series processor from Realtek. Both of these are follow-up units, with the new processor making them faster and more capable than the originals. The HD2 can hold a single 3.5" HDD, while the Mini2 is designed to go HDD-less and simply stream all content. That's the primary difference between the two, and both are also able to connect to Facebook, Twitter, MSN and...
Read more...
Another day, another month, another year...another media player. That's the trend we're seeing, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down. Most all of the major players have contributed to the sector, with Western Digital, Netgear, D-Link, Roku, Apple and loads more introducing new networked set-top boxes to the market. And now, smaller players are jumping in as well. AC Ryan, an overseas-based company, has just introduced their first media player with Intel's Atom CE4150 processor. The box is situated in the Playon! series of Full HD media players, and the new FLUXX is one of the sleeker looking models we have seen. It's equipped with an HDMI output, component outputs, an Ethernet port and a cutting-edge...
Read more...
New features? Yes, please! One of our favorite things is receiving a firmware update that adds new features to a product that we already own, and that's what is happening to Western Digital's WD TV Live and Live Plus units. These media streamers have just picked up some much-needed functionality, with Facebook being a highlight addition. After an update is installed, users can browse walls and stream Facebook images, all while updating their own status. Furthermore, users will now be able to to instantly rent or purchase the newest movie releases the same day they become available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc through the Blockbuster On Demand service. Deezer, Flingo and AccuWeather are also new additions,...
Read more...
Another day, another media streamer. That certainly seems to be the case here lately, as company after company continues to introduce new ways to stream media from the Internet and your networked storage locations onto your television. The newest one to join the bandwagon is the Acer Aspire RevoView, which is an HD DLNA certified media player that can playback media content from all DLNA certified devices. The box itself looks fairly stylish, and the setup looks fairly simple. It can connect to TVs via HDMI, and it's able to integrate into your existing surround speaker system as well. There's a USB port and a memory card slot for loading multi-media, and if you're in favor of keeping certain...
Read more...
Here's the thing about most of today's media streamers: they don't have an optical drive. So even though they're capable of playing lots of content from the Internet, they can't play back your old DVD or new Blu-ray Disc collection. This isn't a problem if you already own a Blu-ray or DVD player and also don't mind have two boxes under your television, but what if you want an all-in-one solution? Yamaha has asked themselves the same question, and the answer seems to be the BD-A1000. Called a "universal Blu-ray player," this sleek deck offers 1080p HD playback via HDMI of your favorite discs, but also connects to Netflix, Blockbuster and YouTube Internet video streaming. There are even two USB...
Read more...
In need of a new media streamer? You have a lot of options these days, and now you have one more courtesy of a company that traditionally sticks with NAS devices. The new NMP-1000P Networked Media Player looks the part well, and unlike some of the competition, it fully supports BitTorrent background transfers, 1080/24p output and lots of esoteric file formats. It's designed to be used via Ethernet, but a Wi-Fi adapter is an optional accessory for those who can't run the cable. There's no HDD within, but there's room for a 3.5" SATA drive for keeping some files local. It can stream media (including FLAC files) from networked sources or the Internet at large, namely from ShoutCast, Apple Movie...
Read more...
The Apple TV just started shipping to consumers this week, and there's no way to battle that like adding support for Hulu Plus. That's what has happened with the Roku line of media streamers today, as the company has landed a deal that will make Hulu Plus available on all Roku players. The Hulu Plus channel will be available via subscription to all Roku customers later this fall. This means that Roku now gives access to Hulu Plus, Amazon Video on Demand, MLB.tv, and many more. And yes, Netflix is included too. This nearly makes the Roku line of boxes ready to take over as the entertainment box of choice for many, and if there were ever a great time to drop cable and switch to something less expensive,...
Read more...
This strange, strange looking device actually looks more sophisticated than it actually is. It's not a traditional media streamer; rather, it's a Wireless USB based product that simply creates a wireless link between your PC and your television. This obviously has pros and cons, but Veebeam is hoping you pay more attention to the former. Unlike a Roku box, which is wired directly to your HDTV and received content from the Internet, the Veebeam box relies on your PC's web browser to stream content, and then it sends that information wirelessly to your television over the Wireless USB protocol. It's nice for those who simply need to stream everything, but Wireless USB isn't known for having an...
Read more...
At this point, there's no difficulty in finding a media player for your HDTV. You've got plenty of options, from Roku to Popcorn Hour to everywhere in between. But up until this point, Sony has managed to stay mostly out of this up and coming sector. But the company that has spent the majority of their time lately pushing 3D is finally moving forward with their own set-top box, the Netbox SMP-N100. It's a networked media player, which means that it can pull content from local USB sources as well as network hard drives and the Internet. There isn't a Blu-ray player bundled in here, but there is support for DivX and MKV, along with a bunch of other standard file formats. The main exception is that...
Read more...
Media players, and media streamers in particular, are just about everywhere these days. It's not difficult to find one to suit your needs, but a lot of the more modern versions have network connectivity. That's a fine feature if you're in need, but it's an extra expense if you never really planned on looking to the Web for content in the first place. Western Digital has offered a number of media streamers over the years, with their latest box having no access to the Internet at all. It's a basic, stripped-down version of the WD TV Live Plus, with the WD Elements Play having no integrated Wi-Fi and no Ethernet port. Instead, it can be filled with a 1TB or 2TB hard drive, which should give users...
Read more...
A few product categories have really exploded over the past couple of years: netbooks, smartphones and digital media players come to mind. As the typical TV continues to fade, and more unconventional methods of media consumption continue to flourish, more and more consumers are looking to these small set-top boxes to bring networked content to their living room television.One company that has thus far avoided making their own media STB is AVerMedia Technologies, but today that changes. The company has just announced the AVerLife Cinema, which is a digital media player that allows you to combine all media files, including movies, videos, music and photos, on a single device for playback on a TV...
Read more...
