Interested in finding an economical, plug-n-play home media server to add to your network for PC backup, file sharing, and media serving duties to digital media adapters (including DLNA certified devices)? If yes, have a look at this little gem just released by Iomega called the Home Media Network Drive selling for just $229.99 with 1TB of storage (500GB @ $159.99). Product highlights include: Gigabit Ethernet, UPnP A/V Media Server, iTunes Server, Bonjour device discovery, USB print server functionality, browser based administration, and a copy of EMC Retrospect for scheduling (Windows / Mac) PC to network drive backups. All in all, the Home Media Network Drive not only sounds like a great deal but it appears to be a very capable device with all the right ingredients for a connected home environment. MORE »

Scoot over, Netflix. Roku and Amazon have announced a partnership to provide the Roku Digital Video Player (notice Roku finally changed their device’s name from “Netflix Player by Roku” to the Roku Digital Video Player — good move) users access to Amazon’s Video On Demand library in the early part of 2009. Soon users will be able to rent new movie titles (launched the same day as their DVD counterparts) and TV shows ranging in price from 99-cents to $3.99 with a 24 hour viewing window. Users will also be able to purchase videos to own, which will be stored in “your video library” at Amazon.com for convenient access from any PC, Mac, or TV. It’s also worth pointing out that Amazon VOD videos will be encoded in the advanced H.264 codec and will stream at the best quality possible (either 300, 600, 900 or 1200 kbps) automatically according to your detected bandwidth connection speed. Full press release below. MORE »

CE Pro Magazine gave subscribers an early sneak peek at ZeeVee’s upcoming ZvPro rack mountable, HD over coaxial cable distribution appliance in its latest edition. Unfortunately, the details in ZeeVee’s ad spot were a bit thin for our taste, but it looks like the ZvPro will be able to screen shift (if that’s actually a technological term yet) the feed provided by a DVR, media server, HD set-top box, and even a PC. What’s more, with a PC connection, ZvPro users gain access to “unlimited video on demand from the internet, plus email, web surfing, and more [on all your] HDTVs.” How it will do all this is a mystery, so stay turned – an official press release should be hitting the wires later this week. [via]

Looks like the guys at LG aren’t threatened by the likes of Samsung’s BD-P2500. LG is announcing that in the next few weeks owners of their BD300 Network Blu-ray Player will gain access to CinemaNow – including its HD library – and YouTube content directly from their player. These new enhancements are in addition to LG’s recently added Netflix HD streaming support. Now, if someone can pass the word along that us, connected home enthusiasts, would like to see UPnP functionality added so we can stream our stored media from network PCs and NAS servers, that would be very much appreciated. MORE »

I get and respect Cisco’s desire to dig deeper into the home, but I am not convinced that a piece of consumer electronics gear is the way to do it. According to the NYT, Cisco is looking to develop a “a digital stereo system that is meant to move music wirelessly around a house.” MORE »

A new study from international research firm Parks Associates finds consumer demand for networking features will drive the next wave of consumer electronics purchasing, particularly for imaging and mobile devices such as digital cameras, photo frames, and mobile phones. Digital Media Evolution, a new survey from Parks Associates, finds nearly 50% of U.S. broadband households want a digital camera with networking capabilities, with nearly 40% similarly interested in a networked digital photo frame. MORE »

If you live in a dual Mac and Windows PC environment, HP’s new ex485 (750GB – $599) and ex487 (1.5TB – $749) MediaSmart Servers launching in February 2009 are going to be right up your alley. The new machines, which come packed with a 2Ghz 64-bit Celeron processor and 2GB of DDR2 RAM, now offer Time Machine support so you can program scheduled backups of your Mac computers alongside your Windows PCs. The only catch Gizmodo reports, however, is that the new MediaSmart Servers still require a Windows PC for setup and administration. In other words, don’t plan on getting one of these if you’re starting out in a Mac-only environment. On a more positive note… the ex485 and ex487 servers can now be easily synced to Amazon’s S3 offsite “cloud” storage service for added data security and features a new browser based media player / remote media streamer powered by TwonkyMedia that enables users to access their digital library from anywhere in the world. HP is even providing people with a free domain forwarding service that will allow one to access to their MediaSmart Server using a custom HP URL linked to their home’s broadband IP address. Additional details are provided in the attached press release below. MORE »

Admittedly, it’s been a while since we’ve covered any portable media player (PMP) products on this site. This is mostly due to the fact that the segment has been fairly stagnant over the past year – not to mention… smartphones from Apple, Nokia, HTC, etc. of late have been eating away at their market share. In any case, Cowon has recently launched their latest and greatest PMP called the Cowon S9 that’s sure to impress the most discerning of users. The S9 does everything a traditional PMP can do, but packs one of the most kick-butt touch interfaces that we’ve seen in a while. On top of that, the S9 is an extremely capable device that can play just about every codec you can throw at it. Some of the more noteable features inlcude: audio recording via external mic or line in, A/V out, FM radio, Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP / AVRCP profile for pairing wireless headphones or A2DP stereo audio receivers, 3.3-inch display (16 million colors @ 480×272), 500Mhz P3 processor, 16GB flash memory card capacity, cross-compatibility with Windows / Mac / Linux, and a heck of a long lasting lithium polymer battery giving users approximately 11 hours of video viewing or 55 hours of music playback. If you’re interested, Amazon is shipping it for $239. The only CONS I see is that the S9 doesn’t support H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC or include Wi-Fi for Internet browsing like many of the cutting edge PMPs do.

As most of you know already, UPnP PC server apps traditionally have been pretty bland and limited in functionality. Seriously… their sole purpose is to provide media streamers connected to your TV or Internet radios a database of available media content for playback (and handle any transcoding duties, if necessary). Well, one of the leaders in this area, TwonkyMedia, has decided to take things up a notch with its new TwonkyMedia Manager; A full-blown Windows PC application (Mac version coming soon) that not only functions as a server, but as a personal media manager as well, allowing users to organize media (with description editing, rating, date, genres, keywords, etc.), create playlists consisting of either audio or video, create photo slideshows, organize and playback content available in your YouTube and Flickr accounts, tap into Internet radio, and more. But the best part is that all these features and pre-configured playlists / slideshows that you’ve created can be tapped into by your UPnP / DLNA compatible media adapters and photo frames. So, in essence, you’re not just providing a media streamer available media file data… you’re also giving it customized content for playback. What’s more, the TwonkyMedia Manager also enables you to browse, organize, and stream content from other PCs and NAS servers on your home network. All in all not a bad deal for $39.99 (Free 30-day trial is available).

Related Product: TVersity (Features Page for Comparison) – FREE

In an effort to provide Niveus Media Server and Niveus Storage Server – Cargo Edition owners a higher end movie experience, Niveus Media has integrated the ability for people to download HD quality feature films from HDGIANTS’ movie collection directly through the company’s Niveus Movie Library application. The Niveus Movie Library, for those unfamiliar, is a proprietary movie management application that aggregates and displays stored — and now… available — movies along with high-res cover art and detailed metadata. According to the press release attached below, all movies downloaded from the service will be accessible from the system they were downloaded to as well as Media Center Extenders and other network PCs. Unfortunately, there’s no word on pricing for each HD title, but a preview of the selection can be viewed here.

CORRECTION: Just got an email from Niveus stating the following: “The movies are not downloaded via Niveus Movie Library (or any medium for that matter). The customer orders the movie package from the dealer and HDGIANTS sends the dealer a hard drive with the content. The dealer then loads the content onto the customer’s server and it is integrated into the Movie Library.” Sorry, folks. The press release gave me a different impression after reading it. However, now that we’re getting clarification on how the process works… too bad it’s not the case as previously thought (in regards to downloading HD movies directly through the Niveus Movie Library application).

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