HP MediaSmart Connect Review

In our recent roundup of Vista Media Center Extenders we were very disappointed that HP MediaSmart connect wasn't available in time to go head to head with the rest. Now that the MediaSmart Connect is in hand, we were anxious to try it out and see how it compares and we have to say that with a MSRP of $350 and a street price at just under $300, we had pretty high expectations. Although there is no doubt that it has the nicest exterior and remote of any extender available, we're not sure if those two merits alone help it to live up to its premium price.

HP MediaSmart Connect

The Good
Best looking Media Center Extender -- we're a sucker for piano black.
Fully back-lit programmable remote included.
Included HDMI cable.
Internal antenna for ABGN WiFi adapter.
USB and Pocket Media Drive bay.
MediaSmart UI with UPNP/DLNA support.
Silent operation.

The Bad
No 1080p support.
No coax digital out.
Remote is not Media Center centric (HP's Media button is much bigger than The Green Button, for example)
Price ($300).
No HDMI-CEC -- other than power.
MediaSmart UI isn't nearly as "pretty" as Vista Media Center (no animations or translucent menus).
Included HP UPNP/DLNA software only supports Windows.
Network setup wasn't as easy as other extenders we tested (couldn't get an IP).
IR receiver placement between doors, makes it impossible to use with an IR repeater system.
Programming the remote is not intuitive and requires lots of codes to try.

The Ugly
MediaSmart UI is very slow.
No SDTV support-- not every TV in our house is HD after all.

Conclusion
From the first second you open the really cool packaging, there's a lot to like about the HP MediaSmart Connect, but the with a higher price, comes higher expectations. So with an MSRP higher than an Xbox 360, you expect to get more for your money and not less (outputs). If you are completely in love with the HP MediaSmart software -- we're not -- then it may be the perfect extender for you. But with longer load times (30 seconds vs 8 of the Linksys), less outputs and identical performance when being used as an extender, the HP MediaSmart Connect simply doesn't knock off the current king, the DMA2100. That being said, if it was the same price as the Linksys -- which we've seen for as low as $150 -- we could easily overlook the missing features and would instead really appreciate the nicer exterior and included remote that is actually usable.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 28th 2008 4:37PM]

I would pay for this if it was Popcorn hour in a powerful box .. But this is not it So popcorn hour still runs my media

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 28th 2008 5:32PM]

Greeat here comes another 100 popcorn hour fanboys yelling about how awesome it is and NONE of them will understand what a media center extender is.....

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 28th 2008 6:43PM]

Um ok guy .. I know for damn sure what a extender is .. but to only play back the limited VMC formats is silly ,All im saying is its closed formats suck .. Sure i would like to stream HD Premium cable from my ATI cable card tuner to something other then my XPS420 (and my 360) like i am now .. but not if im going to ONLY be able to playback ancient formats ... And i'm not a MKV container fanboy before you jump on that wagon.. if i could playback my Bluray .M2TS back ups id jump on this

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 28th 2008 8:24PM]

I'm not a popcorn hour fanboy, but...popcorn hour is way superior to this thing. HP media smart connect only plays a limited amount of formats, while popcorn hour (A-110) plays anything you can throw at it, including blu-ray backups with DTS-HD/DTS-MA audio streams.

Can the Media Smart connect do that? no?..didn't think so.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 29th 2008 12:12AM]

Since the Popcorn Hour on top of being a standalone player supports GB-PVR , I think it is completely valid to compare it with the sole function MCE/VMC only extenders.

Martin

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 29th 2008 1:41PM]

95% of the funtion of this device is a Media Center Extender, which is something a popcorn hour can't do. So please tell me why you are comparing the popcorn hour to this when the popcorn hour can't do the main function which is a extender?

Exp.

Hey your vechile sucks! Its super slow compared to my porsche! Slow vechiles suck...

But I bought my vechile to haul dirt?

It doesn't matter my vechile is fast and your vechile is slow eat me loser!

I'm confused..

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 29th 2008 12:20PM]

Correct. Popcorn Hour sounds great. But I want to stream one HD connection to my other TV's in the house. I don't think Popcorn Hour can do that.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 29th 2008 12:54PM]

Yep, the whole argument seems like apples and oranges to me. Popcorn hour looks like an OK way to play media you've obtained, but how did you obtain it?

I've been really happy with VMC and my DLink extender. Eventually I'll have an extender in every room, but for now the DLink drives an SD system for the rest of the house's TVs.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 29th 2008 5:10PM]

If 95% of the reason you have purchased an extender is to look at a proprietary MS UI you are correct. I buy a device device so that it plays media without having to build an HTPC. I can't think of one functional area where an MCE is superior.

Rocksoldier using GB-PVR you can stream live HD ATSC/QAM/DVB and HD PVR captures to a Popcorn Hour.

Martin.