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Digital Media Receivers -- The Thread


Straycat

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I bought myself a so called Digital Media Receiver.

 

From now on I can stream all the digital media I have on my computer (music, photos, video & movies), without wires, directly to my surround system and TV in the living room. After much deliberation, I settled with a Philips SL300i Streamium -- and it works, more or less, flawlessly. Now, you can't expect too much from technology that still is in it's infancy, but I must say the Philips machine exceeded my expectations.

 

A thing that I really like with the Philips is that it's upgradable thru Internet (and there are upgrades done). Also, you're not locked in using only Philips software & services. I've been able to hook up the Philips machine with a wide array of local media servers and they all worked fine. A few examples:

 

Philips Media Manager

Twonkyvision Media Server

Nero Media Home (Part of Nero 6 Reloaded) and

Windows Media Connect

 

Furthermore, I can now also connect and stream Internet content directly to my TV and surround system, without going thru my computer. Again, a nice thing here is that the Philips machine does not restrict services to only Philips approved ones. I can for example listen to all Shoutcast streams, including Thai Radio Stations -- which is quite appreciated by the old ball & chain ;)

 

I sincerely belive that within a few years we will all have similiar and more sophisticated systems in our living rooms.

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I remember you and me discussing streaming media last year, you were already quite taken by the tremium concept, if I remember correctly. Good to see that you finally went for it. I myself went in gadget mode and bought my first PDA. I don't think my wife would appreciate me buying a media receiver now - maybe I try again in six months or so.

 

I like the fact that you can hook up to any shoutcast station - a big plus in my book! How is the quality of avi streaming o your tv. Does it fill the screen? sharp picture? Does your PC need to be turned on to access the internet? Or can you hook up directly to your modem?

 

I sincerely belive that within a few years we will all have similiar and more sophisticated systems in our living rooms.

 

Hey, I just know it's true!

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Hi there!

 

Yeah, I remember our discussion & sort of expected you'd be the first to give a response to this thread ;)

 

I've been looking into this for a while now, reading reviews, checking different manufacturers and so on. Mainly I bought this to be able stream video as I'm starting to have a rather large collection of it and I find it painful to either move the computer to the TV-set or burn it on DVD-discs.

 

1. Not only can you connect to Shoutcast (that streams in mp3) but also to any radio station that stream in WMA (Windows Media Audio). For the latter, you need to fiddle around a while to find the correct URL. Once you have it though, you can save it.

 

2. A bigger plus is that Philips can connect to BlueBeat.com -- an Internet radio station that streams in 320 kb/s. I'm not aware of any other station that streams at higher quality.

 

3. Video quality seems wholly dependent on the "raw material". If the source is of good quality with a reasonable frame size, it will be the same on the TV. More or less everything that is capped today from aired TV or satellite, and available as torrents, will fill the screen and give sharp pictures. -- Some reviewers claim that that video is unwatchable while streaming on a wireless network. I'm on a 802.11g wireless network and while there are glitches far between, they're truly minimal and not ruining the experience. So far, it seems Windows Media Connect gives the best results in this department.

 

4. Computer does not need to be on to connect to Internet. The receiver can connect to your network either with an ethernet cable or thru a wireless network. -- If you use a Network Hard Drive, I think that with the right set-up you don't need the computer turned on to stream local media files either. A non-issue for me though, as the computer is on 24/7.

 

Cheers,

Stray

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What kind of set (CRT, Plasma, DLP) are you sending the data to?

 

I am also looking at a media center PC and leaning heavily toward building my own. Windows Media Center appears to write files in a proprietary format and has a bunch of anti piracy features that I'm not interested in.

 

Sage TV seems to be a reasonably priced alternative. I'm mostly concerned with picture quality as I have an HDTV set and have become spoiled with the picture quality. The difference in quality between HDTV and standard definition is comaprable to going to LOS or Las Vegas for Sanuk ::

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