Maximum PC Media Streaming RSS Feed

Logitech Squeezebox Duet

Michael Brown — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:17:12 -0500

When you see a color display on a music-streamer’s remote control, it’s
natural to assume that the manufacturer is going after the vaunted
Sonos Digital Music System. But after thoroughly testing the Squeezebox
Duet—Slim Devices’s first new product since being acquired by
Logitech—we’ve concluded that Sonos has little to worry about.

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Xbox Live Marketplace

Michael Brown & Will Smith — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:00:50 -0500

It turns out that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is good for more than just
playing games and streaming the occasional transcoded video file.
Indeed, the game console can also be a source of movie and TV-episode
downloads using Microsoft’s online store, Xbox 360 Marketplace.

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Vudu

Michael Brown & Will Smith — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:00:24 -0500

Vudu delivers more HD content than any other service, but achieving that image quality requires you to purchase a $300 box that can’t be truly integrated into the rest of your home network (meaning you can’t stream the content downloaded to it from one room to another). And the company currently has HD licensing deals with only Lionsgate, Paramount, and Universal; the rest of its offerings are limited to standard definition.

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HP Media Vault mv2010

David Murphy — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:00:10 -0500

HP’s Media Vault is like a clumsy, fat version of HP’s star-quarterbacking, marathon-running, leather-jacket-wearing MediaSmart Home Server. And that’s saying something, considering the MediaSmart EX475 is something of a middling performer. We can’t fault HP for trying to make a cheaper, simpler alternative to the Windows Home Server-based MediaSmart, but we’re certainly ready to take the company to task for releasing a product that doesn’t work as advertised.

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Linksys DMA2200 Media Center Extender

Michael Brown — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:59:09 -0600

We’ve been waiting for media-streaming devices to catch up to 802.11n, and the Linksys DMA2200 does it in style—geek style, that is. The box isn’t particularly attractive, but we dig the dual-band Wi-Fi radio inside that’s capable of operating on either the 2.4GHz or 5GHz frequency bands.

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HP MediaSmart EX475

Will Smith — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 18:23:46 -0600

We’re going to get this out of the way up front. If you’re looking for raw speed, the MediaSmart isn’t for you. We’ve tested faster NAS boxes, but we’ve never tested a network storage device that delivers the same level of functionality as this little Windows Home Server-based wonder.

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Creative Xmod Wireless

Michael Brown — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:14:46 -0500

Creative is a little late to the wireless music-streaming party, but the company comes with a gift its competitors can’t match: the X-Fi Crystalizer technology lifted from its X-Fi soundcard line.

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Sony LF-V30 LocationFree Base Station

Michael Brown — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:25:07 -0500

Which consumer product first enabled any PC with an Internet connection to remotely control a set-top box or DVR and stream live or pre-recorded television to it? If you answered “Slingbox,” you’re mistaken. It was actually Sony’s LocationFree TV.

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