Featured Digital Media Server Reviews

GoogleTV is apparently not dead. Today at CES, Vizio and Google jointly announced the introduction of the Vizio VAP430 Stream Player, an innovative stream player that turns any HDTV into an enhanced Vizio Internet Apps Plus (V.I.A. Plus) smart TV that incorporates the latest Google TV. The Stream Player lets consumers access tons of entertainment content and online services with web access through a fully capable Chrome browser. You can also stream photos, music and video stored on any computer, hard drive or smart phone connected to a local network and/or the cloud.

Simaudio showed off more than just their Moon phono preamplifier, they also introduced the Moon 180 MiND Music Streamer. MiND, an acronym for Moon intelligent Network Device, streams digitally stored music from a computer, Network Attached Storage (NAS) device, the internet, subscriber-based music services or a UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) enabled device to your audio system. Ultimately, MiND provides a simple means for efficient access to large collections of music, as well as the ability to organize the music to your own preferences. And, the included control software app works with the Apple iPhone, iTouch, iPad or any Android-powered device.

LaCie used the 2012 CES to announce some new Thunderbolt-driven drives. The new 2big Thunderbolt Series delivers speed, flexibility and capacity, while the eSATA Hub Thunderbolt Series allows users to connect external eSATA drives to Mac computers. LaCie's had a bunch of success with its Little Big Disk Thunderbolt Series drives and he new drives look to deliver speeds and product enhancements to Mac computers that have been unavailable until recently. In particular, eSATA support has been completely lacking, though it exists as a compatible technology on the Intel-based boards used in iMac, MacBook Pro and PowerMac computers.

DISH Network is completely changing the way it does DVR - particularly as it has to do with a whole-home setup. And this really makes sense, considering that right now you need a DVR in each room in order to record your favorite shows - and those shows can't be shared from one room to the next. Now they can. DISH is introducing Hopper and Joey, a whole-home high definition DVR entertainment system. The Hopper HD DVR and accompanying small Joey set-top boxes create a whole-home HD DVR entertainment system that lets DISH customers easily record, pause, and play back shows from any room in the home. While most whole-home DVRs do not have the same DVR functionality on every TV, the Hopper and Joey whole-home system offers the exact same DVR functionality on every TV, letting customers pause, play and rewind both live and recorded HD programs in up to four rooms.

Acer is attempting to claim the title of thinnest PC notebook in the world with the unveiling of its two new ultrabooks at the 2012 CES. While the full specifications of the Aspire S5 and Timeline ultrabooks are still being released and solidified (at least to the press) the S5 is being billed as the thinnest ultrabook to date at only 15mm thick. For reference, the current MacBook Air is 17mm in thickness. Weighing in at less than 3 pounds, the S5 features a 13.3" LED backlit LCD screen and an unusual motorized "Magicflip" panel that opens to reveal the included HDMI, USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt ports. This is the first notebook we've heard of to-date that features Thunderbolt aside from Apple products, though we imagine this will be more commonplace at CES this year.

Vizio announced a complete line of notebooks/laptops and an all-in-one PC that appears to be taking on the design trends of Apple Computer directly. Built with a stylish aluminum frame design, the new PCs look to be incredibly stunning visually and are extremely light and thin in all dimensions. The new Windows 7-based PCs are going to launch in spring 2012 and includes 2 All-in-One computers, 2 thin + light notebooks and one netbook. The notebooks in particular look to be directly aimed at Apple's MacBook Pro line and the smaller Netbook is reminiscent of the MacBook Air. This may not be enough to drive sales away from Apple, but it's great to see other companies taking such a design-focus on their products.

My past experience with network attached storage (NAS) was years ago, we called it the toaster and it held two drives with built-in redundancy; RAID 1. Mirrored drives gave my home network nicely backed-up storage via Ethernet. After assigning it an IP and mapping a drive letter to my PC I had access to Ethernet stored files. The NAS drive was great for backing up family pictures and an MP3 library. But did it stream? Forget about it! To any audio/video enthusiast affordable NAS was a major fail. The devices were expensive, complicated and slow. But that was almost ten years ago, surely the situation has improved since then – and it has. Nowadays there are several options including NetDisk proprietary NDAS system aimed at the small, consumer-grade home network admin.

Russound debuted their new DMS-3.1 Digital Media Streamer, which is part of their C-Series line of multiroom audio products. It's not inexpensive, coming in at around $2,100 (MAP). The new media server will deliver up to 3 digital audio streams for whole home audio systems and installations. The sources for these three audio signals may be from the Internet or from music files on connected storage devices. A fourth simultaneous signal is available from the DMS-3.1’s built-in AM/FM stereo tuner. The server is one rack unit (1U) tall and features three pairs of stereo audio output jacks for each of the audio streams plus another pair for the tuner. A Source ID Switch lets each stream identify itself easily within the system. The new DMS-3.1 is designed to work with Russound C-Series controllers and multiroom audio systems. The DMS-3.1 connects to the controller via an Ethernet LAN (wired RJ45) home network connection. The DMS-3.1 can also play back audio files on LAN-connected DLNA devices, such as network drives, which may be located in various rooms throughout the home.

Who is the target audience for the Denon DNP-720AE Networkd Audio Player? Obviously custom installers but we think there are quite a few others that will be interested. With Apple's AirPlay on board, you have just about all the advanced network features available on the market without having to upgrade your receiver. Of course, for a couple hundred over the $500 price point of the DNP-720AE, you could upgrade your receiver. But if you really love your current equipment but want to add networking, the DNP-720AE could be the box for you.