Nothing like getting a hot steam blast to the face whenever you demand it. Now you can clean out your filthy pores with ‘ion-charged nano-particles’ that a normal pot of boiling water simply can’t provide. Supposedly. More »
So it turns out that the WD Media streamer thing we told you about last week doesn’t stream Pandora in Australia. While I’m not surprised, I’m still a little disappointed…
The thing that struck me about the press release for the WD TV Live HD Media Player wasn’t the ability to stream your HD content over your network to your TV (my PS3 does that for me), but more the fact that it apparently allows you to stream Pandora internet radio here in Australia. More »
We had an inkling that HP was killing off or discontinuing its MediaSmart TVs and Connect HD media receiver lines, and sure enough, HP spokespeople emailed us a confirmation today:
Cisco Linksys’ Wireless Home Audio system is a direct competitor to Sonos in the land of room-to-room streaming music. But WHA is more ambitious, with promises of iPod compatibility, touchscreen remotes and 802.11n support.
HDi’s Blu-ray player is one of the first great Blu-ray + digital file players we’ve seen, being BD Live compliant and playing back DivX/XVid/WMV9/H.264/MKV files. Best of all, it’s got a built-in BitTorrent client.
This IS301 dock system from Marantz looks pretty swish, particularly as the dock part can be rotated for wall-mounting, but it’s a little confusing. It adds Bluetooth remote streaming to your hi-fi, which is nice, can charge iPods (including touch, but not iPhone) when it’s powered up, and it allows for direct control of Marantz receivers, but what’s up with the S-video out on the base station?
Remember that WD TV device we showed you the other day? It’s now available in Australia. I know – it’s like a world record or something for us to get a product like this within days of the US. Somebody call Guinness.
Anyway, the thing will set you back $199, connect to your TV via HDMI and playback all that illegally downloaded content from bittorrent you’ve got stored on an external hard drive. It’ll also do photos and music, and comes with a cheap-looking remote control. Still for $199, you can’t expect a frickin’ Harmony remote, can you?
Western Digital, better known for storage than HD video equipment, looks to have thrown their hat into the video streaming ring with the WD TV HD Media Player. With two USB 2.0 drives working simultaneously, you can plug in your USB storage and stream to your HDTV in 1080p over HDMI or composite. The diminutive box comes with a remote control and what seems to be proprietary browsing software. It’s available now from Best Buy for a competitive $US130, which is a solid price for an HD streamer even if it’s snuck in under the radar a bit. [Engadget]
