Yeah, you may be burning that midnight oil, but your weariness isn't the reason you're certain you've seen this thing before. Touted at CES as the
MediaSmart Receiver, the re-dubbed MediaSmart Connect is finally available for pre-order. Just as we heard before, this unit takes full advantage of
Extender for Windows Media Center technology, and although it possesses no internal storage space, it will pull in digital media from around your home (and a variety of online media outlets) and pipe it straight to your HDTV. The unit plays nice with other UPnP- and DLNA-compliant devices and includes 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, an Ethernet port, HDMI / component jacks and support for MPEG2/4, DivX, XviD, WMV, MP3, WMA, AAC, JPEG and BMP files (among others). Prospective buyers can get their order in today for $349.
posted Jun 17th 2008 12:41AM
MKV? 1080p? Those are the 2 words I care about when looking at media extenders.
for 50$ more I can easily build a HTPC with the same specs PLUS a Good size HDD
I was shocked to find that HP decided not to bother supporting any 64-bit Windows installation for key functions in this new product. On Page 69 of the Installation and User Guide, HP admits (in very tiny print) that this product's HP MediaSmart Services Gateway software won't run on 64-bit systems.
Windows Vista 64-bit is currently the best-available technology for Windows users and facilitates full RAM memory addressing above 3gb, which is all but essential in 2008. It is also in many other ways a more efficient operating system than its 32-bit counterpart, and the number of PCs that have gone with 64-bit installations has increased dramatically. Many argue that Vista itself should have just gone 64-bit exclusively so as to prevent companies like HP from dragging their feet and claiming "full" Vista support, without taking the minor effort to ensure 64-bit compatibility. (Although it is a larger undertaking to re-write software to take advantage of a 64-bit platform, it is a very minor and elementary task to ensure that a 32-bit application simply can work on a 64-bit platform within its 32-bit "emulation.")
I encourage everyone to start posting about this immediately. The only way that HP will add 64-bit support is if all the major blogs, such as Engadget and Gizmodo and CNET, tag this product's release with, "CONS: No support for 64-bit computers."
HP surely will emphasize that some functions that do not depend on the connected computer, such as viewing pictures, will still work for 64-bit users. But, ahem, the product is literally titled "Connect."
Get with it, HP.