RSS Feeds
Gadgets
HP Mediasmart Connect HD Video Streamer Lightning Review
Posted by Jason Chen at 6:00 AM on October 8, 2008
The Gadget: HP's Mediasmart Connect, a networked receiver that plays back H.264, DivX, XviD, MPEG-2, WMV video, photos, and even connects to your Media Centre to act like an extender. It's also expandable space-wise with HP's Pocket Media Drives, and supports 10/100 Ethernet and 802.11a/b/g/n. It comes in a glossy piano black finish which attracts dust and fingerprints as easily as an actual piano.
The Price: $US299
The Verdict: The Mediasmart Connect is a decent video player, Media Extender and photo viewer, but it doesn't shine in any area other than video quality. We compared the Mediasmart Connect to an Xbox 360, streaming the exact same episode of Entourage from the exact same Windows Home Server and the video quality was noticeably better on HP's unit. Great, except you wouldn't really notice the difference unless you had them side by side like we did.
One other problem we noticed is that browsing speed (browsing a folder file system) is pretty damn slow. Paging down takes upwards of seconds to refresh, forcing you to hold the down button one by one to save yourself from the delay. The same "page down" action on an Xbox 360 is near instantaneous, so we know it's not a server issue.
It does, however, have features that other extenders or media streamers don't. For one, there's the ability to aggregate videos from various networked sources, including DLNA-capable servers. Again, nothing spectacular, but it's a feature that's nice to have. 802.11n streaming (a/b/g are also there) is another nicety for people who hate wires. More bonuses are YouTube, Snapfish, CinemaNow and Live365, services you may or may not use and want on your set-top streamer.
Compared to the Xbox 360, both can act as Media Centre Extenders, both can play back DivX and XviD files and work as a photo viewer, but only one can play a donkey-load of video games. On the other hand, the Mediasmart Connect does have on-board storage, which is great if you want to dump a bunch of videos onto it and delete them out of your BitTorrent folder on your PC.
At $US299, it's hard to recommend the Mediasmart Connect over something like an Xbox 360 because of everything else the 360 can do. If extras like YouTube and CinemaNow (as well as media aggregation over all servers), built-in 802.11n wireless, DLNA compatibility and better video quality appeal to you, this may be your ticket to streaming video anywhere in your house. [HP]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
Bloomy
Posted October 8, 2008 4:18 PM
I've been thinking about buying some kind of media center or streaming device, but they all seem to have limitations. I think I'll just stick to plugging my MacBook into my 50" plasma and streaming video from my NAS using Plex. It just works! http://www.plexapp.com
[x7productions]
Posted 7:37 AM 8/10/08
I just have my computer connected to my TV through HDMI :) Sure saves me $$$ over these $300 extenders :D haha.
[x7productions]
baltwade
Posted 7:53 AM 8/10/08
I think $99 - $149 is a better price for these media players/extenders. I just can't imagine paying more than that.
Also, I like the black piano finish. If I see one more brushed nickle or aluminum finish I think I going to vomit. That goes for stainless steel too. If you don't like dust try cleaning up your place every once in a while.
baltwade
noamjamski
Posted 7:43 AM 8/10/08
TVersity on the PS3 works pretty great for me!
noamjamski
aural
Posted 8:38 AM 8/10/08
How loud is it in use because my 360 is annoyingly loud. That could be a reason for a recommendation.
aural
gilamon
Posted 9:01 AM 8/10/08
This is way too expensive for what it does. I would consider this at half the price.
The sad part for HP (and the other media streamer vendors) is I'm pretty much their exact target audience
I have a Terabyte+ plus of movies, tv shows, and music stored on a NAS and after looking at a ton of media streamers I ended up with hacked xboxs running xbmc. It only does 480p but the functionality is so much nicer I'm willing to live with it for now. That said they need to get cracking on an xbox360 XBMC
gilamon
Jason Chen
Posted 8:52 AM 8/10/08
@aural: Pretty silent.
Jason Chen
kaffeen
Posted 12:26 AM 9/10/08
This review is not very good. For one thing, it seems to be biased from the start and doesn't cover anything that a video enthusiast would care about. Who cares if the Xbox can play games, I don't even play video games anymore. I do care about the following:
1) Noise level (if this is virtually silent, worth the price)
2) Video resolution (according to specs, this has 720p/1080i, that is pretty good for me and better than some other devices)
3) Accessories (This comes with an HDMI cable (that right there is more than $50 bucks savings), also has a universal remote that can control not only the device, but other devices as well (that is nice).
4) Media extension (This has its own media bay available, that is pretty impressive, plus the storage capabilities are much better than other devices)
5) UpNP capabilities (This has UpNP/DLNA capability, which means you can use XBMC, PlayON, ActiveTV, and others).
I've got this on my shortlist to buy with other devices such as
1) Popcorn Hour
2) D-Link MediaLounge/NAS devices
With the HDMI cable and Remote thrown in, that is actually not a bad deal, I'm sure it will get better towards Xmas.
kaffeen
xibis
Posted 12:43 AM 9/10/08
if it doesn't support .iso files then it is worthless.
Popcorn Hour is the way to go. www.popcornhour.com
xibis
kaffeen
Posted 1:00 AM 9/10/08
Update: Circuit City has this for 249.99
xibis...Popcorn Hour is pretty impressive, but is an overseas product and has some pretty bad manufacturing issues.
Just convert your .iso to mpeg or another format. Pretty easy. The HP not handling .iso has nothing to do with the device, that is a Media Center flaw (or not, depending on your POV).
kaffeen