Next up in HP’s CES MediaSmart announcements is the HP MediaSmart Receiver - a Digital Media Receiver (DMR) which is fully compatible with the HP MediaSmart Server and includes Extender for Windows Media Center Support (or the v2 Extender you may have read about elsewhere).
The DMR enables you to playback music, videos and photos from your home server (or for that matter, from an XP or Vista PCs in your home) and will utilise the familiar Windows Media Center interface when connected to a Vista Home Premium/Ultimate computer.
The DMR can connect to your network through a wired ethernet connection or wirelessly (802.11 A, B, G and N connections are supported via 3 embedded antennae). It’s fully compatible with all UnP and DLNA compliant devices. Best of all, it’s DivX compliant (not sure at this point if that includes XVID support) so you can play back those episodes of Heroes you “acquired”.
If you’ve bought into HP’s Pocket Media Drive way of the world (which I haven’t, but there you go), you’ll find a slot in the front of the DMR, behind a front flap - the MediaSmart Receiver does not come bundled with the drive - you’ll have to buy this separately, if for some reason, you need additional storage or portability.
Around the back, you’ll find a USB connection, plus Ethernet, analogue audio, component video, HDMI and optical audio connectors.
If you connect the HP MediaSmart Receiver to a Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate home computer, then the Extender for Windows Media Center technology (there’s a mouthful) will enable you to stream live or pre-recorded high or standard definition TV straight to your TV (as long as the home computer has a TV Tuner) as well as use all other areas of Media Center. No DVD streaming, however, thanks to those nice people in the Hollywood IT Security Department 
Hopefully, I’ll get hold of some more pics of the unit pre-CES - failing that, I’m taking a digital camera with me, as this one may be displacing the Netgear EVA 8000 under my TV!
No word as yet on timings….
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:26 pm
This is kinda cool but not sure if it comes anywhere close to the ziova range of products that can play an .iso file stored on a network share.
as well as almost every other type of media under the sun.
January 4th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
It would seem that HP is really engaged with designing a variety of products that integrate into WHS. Many people who are not overly technically minded, and don’t want to know what a .iso file is, will see HP as a familiar brand name and will use the HP MediaSmart server and MediaSmart receiver to take there first steps into media steaming around the house without the agavation of getting different manufactures software/hardware to communicate.