LaCie intros 8x d2 Blu-ray burner, LaCinema Black MAX media streamer

It was May of last year when LaCie last updated its external d2 Blu-ray burner, so it's about time we saw that 4x burn rate double to an entirely more palatable 8x. Available now for consumers in the US, the latest d2 Blu-ray Drive ($449.99) can toast both single- and dual-layer BD-Rs at 8x, and it can connect to one's machine via FireWire or USB 2.0. In related news, the outfit has also introduced a LaCinema Black MAX over in Europe, which acts to serve up all sorts of digital media (photos, video clips, music, etc.) on one's HDTV. You can order it with 500GB / 1TB of inbuilt storage, and the integrated Ethernet jack / WiFi module enables it to pull media (up to 1080p) from other locations on your network. We've nary a clue on pricing / availability for this one, but we'll leave it to those in Europe to hunt it down and brag to us Yanks.


[ Source: Engadget ]

[ Tag: bd, blu-ray, blu-ray drive, Blu-rayDrive, external blu-ray, external blu-ray burner, ExternalBlu-ray, ExternalBlu-rayBurner, hd media streamer, HdMediaStreamer, lacie, LaCinema, LaCinema Black MAX, LacinemaBlackMax, media server, media streamer, MediaServer, MediaStreamer ]

HP debuts Mac-compatible MediaSmart ex485 / ex487 home servers

It's been a long, long while since we've heard the words HP MediaSmart, and in fact, the last mention that was made wasn't exactly positive. HP's looking to put the past away and forge ahead with two new ones in the line: the Mac-friendly ex485 and ex487. Both devices are (of course) based on Microsoft's Windows Home Server platform, and just like their predecessors, these are meant to automatically backup machines around the home and act as a network-accessible repository for all things media. The pair features HP's Media Collector (used to schedule, copy and centralize digital files from networked PCs) and also acts as an iTunes server and an external backup device for Macs running Leopard and using Apple's Time Machine software. As for specs, you'll find a 2GHz Celeron CPU in each with 2GB of DDR2 RAM, gigabit Ethernet, four USB 2.0 ports, one eSATA jack and four internal HDD bays. The February-bound duo can be pre-ordered on January 5th for $599 (ex485; 750GB) / $749 (ex487; 1.5TB), and each can be scaled up to 9TB. Full release is after the break.HP Launches New Home Server for PCs and Macs
HP MediaSmart Server centralizes digital media and files for backup, remote access, sharing and uploading to social media sites
PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 29, 2008 – HP today launched a home server designed for use with both Windows and Mac computers.
Based on the Microsoft Windows® Home Server platform, the HP MediaSmart Server ex485/ex487 is a central repository for automatically backing up and accessing digital music, videos, photos and documents from multiple computers on a home network.(1)
The MediaSmart Server automatically organizes files across all PCs, streams media across a home network and the Internet,(2) and publishes photos to popular social networking and photo sharing sites.
"A growing number of digital-savvy households have both Windows and Mac computers, with hundreds and sometimes thousands of media files and documents scattered across these devices," said Jason Zajac, vice president of strategy, Worldwide Attach Group, HP. "The HP MediaSmart Server protects, stores and organizes this content from anywhere on a network so consumers can access and share it any place they are connected."
"HP continues to innovate on the Windows Home Server platform giving consumers even more options to enjoy and protect their precious memories and valuable data," said Charlie Kindel, general manager, Windows Server Solutions, Microsoft. "We believe consumers will embrace the new MediaSmart Server as one of the most exciting computing products for the home."
MediaSmart Server ex485/ex487 features include:
· HP Media Collector: conveniently schedules the MediaSmart Server to copy and centralize digital files and libraries from networked PCs
· Media Streaming: remotely streams photos and music to any Internet-connected PC or Mac
· Server for iTunes: centralizes iTunes music libraries on the server for playback to any networked Mac or PC running iTunes
· HP Photo Publisher: easily upload photos to Facebook®, PicasaTM Web Albums and Snapfish(3)
· HP Photo Viewer: allows easy sharing of photos with friends and family
· PC Hard Drive Backup: backs up networked PCs via the Windows Home Server backup feature
· Mac Hard Drive Backup: backs up Macs running Leopard using Apple Time Machine software
· Server Backup: duplicates designated shared folders to a separate hard disk drive
· Online Backup: duplicates designated folders to Amazon's S3 online backup service for an additional layer of protection
· Smart Power Management: can schedule times for server to go to "sleep" and "wake up," saving on energy costs
· Processor: Intel® Celeron®, 2.0 GHz 64-bit. Two gigabytes (GB) of 800-MHz DDR2 DRAM now standard on MediaSmart Server
· Expandability: additional drives can be added for up to 9 terabytes (TB)
"Customers are always looking for the right mix of features and ease-of-use when choosing digital home products," said Danielle Levitas, group vice president, consumer, broadband and digital marketplace at IDC. "HP's focus and investment in software allows it to deliver a home server with compelling features for Mac and PC users while offering a great customer experience that helps simplify the complexity of the connected home. This unique offering will help expand the home server market."
Pricing and availability
Manufacturer's suggested retail price for the HP MediaSmart Server ex485 with 750 GB of hard disk storage is $599 while the HP MediaSmart Server ex487 with 1.5 TB is $749.(4)
The HP MediaSmart Server can be pre-ordered beginning on Jan. 5, 2009, from Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, Buy.com, Frys.com and NewEgg.com; it is expected to ship in February.
The first 200 consumers who visit HP Home & Home Office (www.hpshopping.com) or call +1 888 271 2982 between Jan. 5 - 11, 2009, to reserve a MediaSmart Server and use coupon code "AC5674" will receive a $50 savings off their purchase.(5)
More information is available at www.hp.com/go/mediasmartserver.
[Via: Engadget ] [Tag: Apple, celeron, ex485, ex487, HP, itunes server, ItunesServer, Mac, Mac compatible, MacCompatible, Media Collector, media server, media smart, media streaming, MediaCollector, MediaServer, MediaSmart, MediaStreaming, OS X, OsX, server, WHS, windows home server, WindowsHomeServer ]

Netflix finally brings 'Watch Instantly' to Macs via Silverlight

In a move that seemed like it would never, ever, ever happen, Netflix has finally managed to bring its streaming video technology (and decent library) to Macs everywhere, thanks to Microsoft's Flash-esque also-ran, Silverlight. It seems that the software will allow the rental house to safely DRM its content where ever it goes via Redmond's Play Ready, thus leaping the hurdle that has kept some 12,000 movies and TV shows off of non-PC systems. Netflix claims that the new implementaiton in Sliverlight provides "breakthrough navigation for fast-forward and rewind," though fails to indicate exactly when this is all being rolled out (we assume immediately). Unfortunately for super-duper late adopters, the software will only work with Intel-based Macs, so if you've been holding onto a G3 for dear life, here's one more reason to finally can it, along with your Xbox 360 HD-DVD player, Von Dutch trucker cap, and gas-guzzling Escalade. Full PR after the break.

NETFLIX BEGINS ROLL-OUT OF 2ND GENERATION
MEDIA PLAYER FOR INSTANT STREAMING
ON WINDOWS PCs AND INTEL MACS

Based on Microsoft Silverlight, New Player Features Enhanced Dynamic Streaming, First-Time Use for Macs and
Breakthrough Navigation for Fast-Forward and Rewind

LOS GATOS, Calif., October 27, 2008 – Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX), the world's largest online movie rental service, today announced it has begun the deployment of Microsoft Silverlight to enhance the instant watching component of the Netflix service and to allow subscribers for the first time to watch movies and TV episodes instantly on their Intel-based Apple Macintosh computers. The deployment, which will initially touch a small percentage of new Netflix subscribers, is the first step in an anticipated roll-out of the new platform to all Netflix subscribers by the end of the year.
Silverlight is designed for delivery of cross-platform, cross-browser media experiences inside a Web browser. It is expected that Netflix members who watch movies and TV episodes instantly on their computers will enjoy a faster, easier connection and a more robust viewing experience with Silverlight, due to the quality built directly into the player. Among the viewing enhancements with the new player is a breakthrough in timeline navigation that vastly improves the use of fast-forwarding and rewinding. The new Netflix player takes advantage of Play Ready DRM, which is built into Silverlight, for the playback of protected content on both Windows-based PCs and on Macs. That had not been possible with previous generation technologies.
"Silverlight with Play Ready offers a powerful and secure toolkit for delivery of dynamic streaming, which offers faster start-up, and higher quality video, adapted in real time to users' connection speeds," said Netflix Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt. "Members who enjoy watching movies and TV episodes from the growing library of choices that can be instantly streamed at Netflix will be thrilled with this next generation improvement of access and quality, on a broader range of platforms, including Intel Macs and Firefox."
[Via: Engadget ] [Tag: breaking news, BreakingNews, drm, film, microsoft, movie, movies, netflix, rental, silverlight, streaming, streaming content, StreamingContent, watch instantly, WatchInstantly ]

LaCie LaCinema Rugged for the rough-and-tumble media enthusiast

LaCie launched the original LaCinema media drive back in January, and the company is now extending the line of media-playback drives with the LaCinema Rugged. Built in a tasteful black version of the same rubber-coated chassis as LaCie's standard rugged drives, the new unit comes in capacities up to 500GB and features 1080i HDMI output of a variety of codecs, including XviD. The LaCinema remote appears to be redesigned, and the menu system is apparently graphical and pretty, which is always nice. Not a bad way to do playback on the go, we suppose -- now if LaCie would just bring the ?219 ($357) drive to the States, we'd be all set.
[Via: Pocket-lint ] [Tag: divx, hard drive, HardDrive, lacie, lacinema, lacinema rugged, LacinemaRugged, rugged, xvid ]

Tranquil PC's SQA-5H home server: 5 bays, Atom 330, the works

No, this ain't a Craigslist ad, this is just a bomb-diggity home server set to officially be released by Tranquil PC tomorrow. The SQA-5H is a cube-shaped server with five hot-swappable drive bays, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom 330 processor and 1GB of RAM (2GB maximum). Additionally, it touts a Quick System Backup for piping your stored data onto an external HDD, a "Mode" button for quick capacity checks and an optional SQA-EX slave unit which provides five additional drive bays connected with a single cable. Expect to find pricing details within 24 hours on the November-bound device.

[Via: WeGotServed ] [Tag: Atom 330, Atom330, home server, HomeServer, media server, MediaServer, nas, SQA-5H, Tranquil, Tranquil PC, TranquilPc ]

Sanyo's laser could bring 12x Blu-ray burners and 100GB discs

While Sony and others compete with Blu-ray burners of a paltry 8x, Sanyo's looking ahead with a new laser that could enable write speeds of up to 12x. More impressively, the 450 milliwatt diode (twice that of current burners) could read and write through four 25GB layers. If you're not so good at math (it's okay, we had to break out the calculator) that means discs of up to 100GB burned in 10 minutes or less! But don't go running down to your local Blu-ray emporium looking for double-digit speed drives just yet; new standards will be needed for discs that big and drives that fast, which could mean a year or two before production begins. If speculation of Blu-ray's impending demise is to be believed, that may be cutting things a bit close.
[Via: Engadget ] [Tag: bd-r, blu-ray burner, blu-ray writer, Blu-rayBurner, Blu-rayWriter, sanyo ]

iTunes 8 kills AirTunes, iPod touch causing BSOD

We were all excited to stream Genius-generated playlists from iTunes 8 to our Airport Express last night when -- poof -- "-3256 Unknown Error Occurred." This cryptic error, along with another under the equally descriptive name "-15000," has been keeping iTunes 8 upgraders from using their Airtunes on remote speakers. Turns out the issue is one of Firewalls and Firmware. The solutions come from users at Apple's discussion boards. Basically, you need to either turn off your Firewall and / or allow iTunes to accept incoming requests or update your Airport Express to the latest (7.3.2 as of this post) firmware version via AirPort Utility 6.3. Meanwhile, Windows-based iPod touch users are seeing Blue Screens of Death when plugging in their players due to some other undocumented problem. The solution there looks to be a reboot with the touch plugged in to force the system to recognize the device, run a sync, and turn off photo syncing (not the most elegant solution, clearly). Let's hope Apple at least updates this with something more descriptive than "-3256" in the future. Customer service reps at Apple say they're aware of the problems and are working on a fix.
[Via: Engadget ] [Tag: airport express,AirportExpress,airtunes,itunes8 ]

Power Pack 1 and HP's add-ons make Windows Home Server a real grouch

If you've experienced some shockingly slow results from your Windows Home Server-based unit, we've one question for you: do you have Power Pack 1 and the HP add-ons installed? If so, you may not be alone in your frustrations. Apparently a number of users have seen dramatic slowdowns that have rendered their WHS devices nearly unusable. It seems that all the "bloatware" really takes a toll, as the hard drives are constantly pounded and console menus take ages (minutes, to be more precise) to appear. According to Within Windows, the only real solutions are to install more RAM and / or tweak your pagefile configurations afterwards. Anyone else raging mad about the performance issues? What are you going to do about it?
[Thanks, Bryant]

[Via: Engadget ]
[Tag: add-on,hp,performance,power pack 1,PowerPack1,whs,windows,windows home server,WindowsHomeServer ]

Tranquil PC introduces AVA RS3 music server

Hope you like the shiny, because Tranquil PC is bringing lots and lots of it with its latest home music server. The AVA RS3 comes in two flavors, one of which packs 2 x 500GB drives while the other includes a pair of 1TB HDDs. The unit also boasts a fanless design to keep things quiet, and just in case your music library isn't all converted to .wav files just yet, it possesses an internal optical drive to handle direct-to-HDD ripping. Expect these to ship out in around a fortnight for £549 ($1,092) / £699 ($1,390).
[Thanks, WHSuser]

[Via: Engadget ]
[Tag: audio server, AudioServer, AVA RS3, AvaRs3, home server, HomeServer, music server, MusicServer, tranquil, tranquil pc, TranquilPc ]

Apple TV gets the SSD treatment

Well, it had to happen eventually: someone cracked open their Apple TV and transplanted the 2.5-inch drive with a 32GB SSD by Transcend. That's pretty much it -- just a bit of hacking, partitioning, re-imaging, and off you go. Do you really even have to ask if putting an SSD in something was worth it?

[Via: Engadget ]
[Tag: apple,apple tv,AppleTv,ssd ]

Iomega's DVR Expander does 500GB of eSATA storage for SA DVRs

So, your cable company stuck you with one of those boring, no-frills Scientific Atlanta DVR boxes. We feel your pain, but you don't have to just take it lying down. Iomega's new DVR Expander offers up 500GB of extra storage over eSATA for compatible Scientific Atlanta boxen. That's about 300 hours of SD TV, or 60 hours of HD. Using those incredibly intuitive SA menus it shouldn't be too hard to stumble through configuration and get this thing added on to your setup, and there's even an eSATA cable included to start things off on the right foot, but it's not like there's anything going on here other than a fairly standard-issue eSATA drive. Right now the drive is compatible with the 8300 DVR and the 8300HD DVR, but future models from Scientific Atlanta will be compatible as well. DVR Expander should be available this month for about $200.

[Via: Engadget ]
[Tag: dvr,dvr expander,DvrExpander,esata,iomega,scientific atlanta,ScientificAtlanta ]

SanDisk kills TakeTV dead

Here's a sure sign of unpopularity: SanDisk stopped selling its TakeTV device, and shut down TakeTV's Fanfare content portal, on May 15th... and nobody noticed. Originally inspiring fond sentiments with its sneakernet approach to getting videos from your computer to your PC, SanDisk's TakeTV just never got much traction. Faced with competition from the likes of Microsoft and Apple -- not to mention the oodles of networked devices that offer up more content and more convenience which have been cropping up recently -- we'd be surprised if TakeTV sold enough units to fill a briefcase. Anybody out there have any fond memory's of TakeTV's short stint?

[Via: Engadget ]
[Tag: fanfare,features,sandisk,taketv ]

Hot Sonos ZP120 on ZP100 action spied

There you have it, Sonos' reputed ZP120 zoneplayer mounting its chubby ZP100 Appalachian cuz. The new amplified zoneplayer adds 802.11n to the mix while ditching the analog outs. Also rumored is an un-amplified, 802.11n ZP90 to replace the ZP80. When? We have no idea but you'll know when we do. Backside front after the break.

[Via: Engadget ]
[Tag: 802.11n,spy,zoneplayer,zp120,zp90 ]

Windows Home Server data corruption fix on the way

Guess what, loyal Windows Home Server users? A fix for that completely obnoxious data corruption bug is on the way. According to an email beamed out by the WHS team, the final release of Power Pack 1 is still aways out, but the public beta is all set to be loosed on those who willingly accept the associated risk(s). Said download is slated to launch in "early June," but those who want to get in on the pre-release fun are being encouraged to sign up now. Needless to say, those who toss their name in the ring better be sure their data is backed way up -- after all, the whole point of this test is to find any remaining holes that could render your files unusable. Keep an eye on that inbox for an invite, and if you're content with just getting the end product, the wait is growing ever shorter.


[Via: Engadget ]
[Tag: beta,corruption,data corruption,DataCorruption,download,fix,media streamer,MediaStreamer,multimedia,software,solution,streaming,whs,windows home server,WindowsHomeServer ]

Planex DigiJuke NAS snags YouTube and BitTorrent video then jams it down the Wii, Xbox 360, iPod... and throat of MPAA

Here it is copyright bandits, the single biggest reason (other than silicone) to make a Hollywood studio notice of you: the MZK-NAS02SG1T network attached server from Planex. The main selling point behind the the ¥54,799 (about $524) 1TB Gigabit Ethernet block is the claim to "universal access" for all your devices. That little trick comes courtesy of its DigiJuke browser for searching and tagging the BitTorrent and YouTube content you want downloaded in the appropriate PSP and iPod (MPEG-4), Wii (FLV), or TV (MPEG-2) format for in-home or on-the-go viewing. The NAS also streams audio and video to your iTunes laptops or desktops or DLNA TV, Xbox 360, or other compliant device in the home. A front-facing USB 2.0 jack offers one-touch dubbing of USB sticks while a second around back offers ready storage expansion. It ships with a pair of 3.5-inch 500GB drive which you can swap out for higher capacity spinners at a later date. That is if the studios don't shut you down first.


[Via: Impress ]
[Tag: bittorrent, dlna, japan, MZK-NAS02SG1T, nas, planex, youtube ]

Sony reveals healthy helping of new HDD / DVD recorders

We'll go ahead and nix some lingering excitement in the room: Sony's latest line of Hard Disk Drive DVD Recorders are aimed squarely at Europe. Now that we're clear on that, let us introduce to you the HX and HXD lines, which each posses four units that top out at 500GB. The RDR-HX680, HX780, HX980 and HX1080 all come ready to fetch analog broadcasts, while the RDR-HXD790, HXD890, HXD990 and HXD1090 also include a DVB-T digital tuner. The HDX crew can even be ordered with a CI slot, and the whole posse includes an HDMI port (1080p upscaling included), X-Pict Story, USB connectors, BRAVIA Sync and a dedicated SD HDD Handycam connection. Take a look in the read link for the full chart of specifications. [Warning: PDF read link]

Gallery: Sony reveals healthy helping of new HDD / DVD recorders

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[Via: T3 ]
[Tag: BRAVIA, dvb, DVB-T, dvd recorder, DvdRecorder, europe, hdd recorder, HddRecorder, HX, HXD, RDR-HX1080, RDR-HX680, RDR-HX780, RDR-HX980, RDR-HXD1090, RDR-HXD1095, sony, X-Pict ]