Smart Home Blog

Mvix expanded its media player family by producing Mvix UltioPro. That player offers a standard range of network media player’s features. It supports all well-known media codecs and containers and allows to play media content from internal HDD, attached USB storage or network shares. The player is ready for Full HD video (I didn’t find anything about HD audio in its spec). But in addition to that the Mvix UltioPro has possibility to record video from external sources via Composite input. That unique feature for such devices can help you convert your VHS library into digital format.

The Mvix UltioPro HD Media Center with PVR is available at $169 without HDD on the Mvix online shop. To be able connect the player to the LAN via WiFi it should be paid additionally $19.99 (802.11g) or $39.00 (802.11n). The price and PVR feature make the Mvix UltioPro is very attractive for buying.

Finally Boxee decided to produce their own box thanks to partnership with a CE company. They don’t give any other information about the partner or the specs of the device. Well, I don’t know is it good or not. Because personally I don’t see a big reason to have a Boxee device. It’s so easy to buy some inexpensive nettop like ASUS Eee Desktop or Acer Asparevo and install desire OS with Boxee there. Or, for example, recently announced nettop Myka already includes Boxee together with XBMC and Hulu Desktop. Moreover, Boxee can be easily installed on any PC or Apple TV and it doesn’t need some special knowledge.

In any case, let’s wait till Boxee box will be shipped. Maybe it’ll be cheap to promote Boxee. But I’m afraid that we’ll get just another nettop with Boxee logo on the front side.

ASUS announced the new model of its HD media players O!Play. The Air HDP-R3 sports 802.11n adapter and CF, SD/MMC and Memory Sticks (MS/MS Duo) card reader missed in the previous version. The rest is the same. The player supports many well-known media formats and containers such MPEG1/2/4, H.264, VC-1, RM/RMVB, AVI, MKV etc. There are HDMI 1.3, composite A/V, optical digital audio outputs, 2 USB and one eSATA/USB2.0 combo port and Ehternet on the back side. Also audiophiles should be happy with Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS sound.

The ASUS O!Play Air HDP-R3 will be available soon at about €90.

Looks like Sonos was infused by Logitech Squeezebox Boom. Its new zone player S5 is also equiped with speakers – 2 tweeters, 2 mids and 1 3.5″ subwoofer. Additionally each speaker has its own Class-D digital amplifiers. So, the ZonePlayer S5 should sound really impressive.

The new Sonos ZonePlayer supports all well-known audio formats and most popular online audio services like Deezer, Last.fm, Napster, Pandora, Rhapsody, SIRIUS Internet Radio and more. It can be connected to the local network using CAT5 cable or WiFi and controlled by Sonos wireless controller or iPhone with installed Sonos Controller App.

The price of the new all-in-one ZonePlayer S5 is $399. Taking into account that price of ordinary ZonePlayer 90 is $349.00 and that it still needs loudspeakers it isn’t bad deal.

[via eHomeUpgrade]

The well-known producer and seller various USB stuff Taiwan company Brando announced its HD Media Player Docking Station. It accepts both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch hard drives as well as USB flash memory, SD, MMC, and MS cards. The device has HDMI 1.3, component and composite video, coaxial S/PDIF and analog audio outputs and support Full HD and understand many media formats even MKV and TS. Additionally it allows to browse photos or read eBooks in the 1080p resolution.

The price of Brando HD Media Player Docking Station is a bit expensive – $199 comparing with networked media tanks. But it might be good if you have a lot of old SATA HDDs and don’t want to buy special cases for all of them.