Filed under: Digital Cameras, Home Entertainment

If you don’t have quite enough set-tops sitting underneath your HDTV, we’ve got one more to fill that tiny gap over there on the right. PIE United has introduced a rather quizzical device aimed at folks who love to show off photos of their journeys around the world on the big screen. The HD-0310 1080p Digital Photo Viewer connects up via HDMI and supports 12 types of flash cards along with USB drives; in addition to photos, it’ll play back video clips and MP3 files. Oh, and just in case you’re fresh out of HDMI ports, this thing packs a single input in order to connect another HDMI device and switch between the two. Not too sure how much this will run the layman, but outfits looking to buy in bulk should be able to land a killer deal.

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Peripherals

If you’ve been looking for a way to stream any HD web content — we do mean any: Hulu, mkv, Amazon — to any HDTV in the house, without running any new wires, dealing with the woes of WiFi, or even needing yet another box hanging off your shiny new HDTV; you should head on over to Engadget HD and read all about ZeeVee’s ZvBox. We take the $500 box and put it through the paces to see if broadcasting your own QAM HD channel is worth the price.

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

If you’ve been putting off that purchase of Popcorn Hour’s evolutionary A-110 HD media streamer or all new B-110 motherboard, here’s a decent compilation of facts and opinions to help you make up your mind once and for all. The cats over at DigitalReviews took the time to not only detail, test out and report back on the newest duo from the company, but it also revisited the original (and heralded) A-100 in order to give a better comparison. Overall, critics did tend to prefer the A-110 over its predecessor, but the minor list of changes made it a hard sell for folks teetering on upgrading. The B-110 was seen as an even tougher sell, with only the hardcore DIY crowd likely to even find it worth investigating. Nevertheless, we won’t spoil the rest for you — head on down to have a look for yourself.

[Thanks, Anton]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

While we can only imagine that the lead time for one of Popcorn Hour’s A-110 HD media streamers is at least a week or so judging by the demand of the predecessor, at least one of these things has managed to make its way out. CNET’s UK branch was able to wrap their paws around the latest Networked Media Tank, and while they did note that the design was essentially the same, the changes that were made (HDMI 1.3a in particular) were “seriously worthwhile.” For a brief preview and a few more shots, check out the read link below.

[Thanks, John]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Well, would you look what just arrived at Engadget HD’s headquarters? Yep, that’s ZeeVee’s localcasting ZvBox, and it has been carefully photographed as it danced right out of its packaging. Head on over to take a look at the gallery — a full review will be following shortly.

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Filed under: Desktops, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Who knows if Popcorn Hour really is still working on a couple more HD media streamers, but its latest one is definitely up for pre-order. First whispered about a few months back, the $215 A-110 is a revamped A-100 that adds 2.5- / 3.5-inch SATA HDD and USB Slave functionality, HDMI 1.3a support (for full HD audio pass-through) and an optical S/PDIF to replace the coaxial S/PDIF socket. For those of you looking for even more flexibility, you can take a look at the outfit’s new B-110 Baseline. This “Home Theater Motherboard” arrives with the media enthusiast in mind, boasting support for HDMI 1.3a, optical / coaxial S/PDIF connectors, four USB 2.0 ports and a mini-ITX form factor. Both pieces should ship out within two to four weeks, but considering just how sticky things were when the A-100 launched, we’d tack on a few weeks to that estimation just in case.

[Thanks, Stephen and Jeff]

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

When Popcorn Hour’s Networked Media Tank / A-100 went on sale earlier this year, we didn’t really foresee it gaining so much fanfare. Even months after launch the unit still had a waiting list, and just recently has the commotion died down enough so that supply and demand could meet in beautiful harmony. In all honesty, we haven’t heard many negative feelings towards this potent little media server, but as these things go, there’s always room — if but a crack — for improvement. So, what features would you like to see on the A-100 that aren’t there currently? Who knows, Popcorn Hour may grant your wishes in one of its potentially forthcoming successors.

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

In the quickly-growing realm of media streamers, there’s at least a modicum of a chance that Conceptronic’s oddly titled Grab ‘n GO Full HD media player has slipped from the forefront of your mind. If so, the outfit is gunning to jar your memory by announcing that it is now shipping said piece to eager consumers. The release also noted that SAMBA and NFS clients have been added, and it’s pretty much ready to “stream all digital media files to a TV in Full HD 1080p resolution.” Furthermore, you’ll find a gigabit Ethernet jack to handle all that data, and the built-in USB port enables external storage to be added locally. Sorry, still no price.

[Thanks, KJ]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

It’s been a tick since Ziova cranked out a new media streamer, but its ClearStream CS615 looks pretty promising. Interestingly, this one doesn’t feature any built-in wireless capabilities nor a DVD drive, but it seems as if the firm’s CEO is aiming this unit at folks who didn’t want to go cordless, anyway. You will, however, find USB 2.0 and 10 / 100 Ethernet ports along with a caddy for an internal 3.5-inch HDD, and the support for WAV, H.264, FLAC, OGG, LPCM, WMA, AAC, AC3, DTS, MPEG1/2/3/4, WMV9, QuickTime, JPG, BMP, GIF and PNG files (just to name a few) ain’t too shabby, either. Furthermore, there’s HDMI (HDCP-compliant), S-Video, composite and component video jacks, support for SMB / FTP and a front-mounted LCD to dish out ID3 tags and other pertinent information. The CS615 is slated to land stateside in March for $329, while Europeans and Aussies can expect it to head their way shortly thereafter.

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