Hello all,

I'm in the market for a media streamer and have been reading up on the various models available on the market, however I'm finding it a challenge finding all the info in one place. Does anyone know of a site or article or thread which lists all the media server/streamers and which features they support?

I'm looking for a 1080p streaming device that has a sexy (i.e. xbox) interface and plays DivX, Xvid, and HD video content, plays music (mp3 192kbs), and renders HD jpegs. I've heard of Tvix's 4100, Netgear's Eva8000, Mediagate's MG-350HD, Tomacro's LimHD200i, Xbox Elite with Tversity. I'd like to go with the Xbox Elite simply because the interface is so nice...but I may be kicking myself because of live transcoding with Tversity for non-native formats.

Without taking price into consideration, from the above options (did I miss any other 1080p streamers?), is one unit blowing the others out of the water? If not, which unit do you think will be the best in the long term given the frequency of firmware updates?

Thanks for your help.

moballa

I doubt you'll find anything that does all of that... the tvix/mvix, etc box are not matured enough... they're more for enthusiast than anything else.

I use tversity with xbox 360 (it's nice and works) but 720p transcoding is a diff story. I do miss the XBMC interface which the xbox is lacking.

if price is not a problem... build an HTPC.

Game consoles (both the Xbox 360 and the PS3) have a much better user interface than all the media streamer you mentioned. They are also less buggy, enjoy frequent upgrades and improvements (by MS and Sony). They are well supported and will remain so, from user community, third party software and manufacturer.
Neither the Xbox nor the PS3 can play Divx natively. but 720p transcoding can be done in real-time on quad core machines, 1080p cannot be done in real time, but can be done in advance.

Media streamers are the exact opposite, I am yet to see one that truly supports 1080p. even those that claim 1080i, are upscaling/downscaling but not handling true 1080 resolutions. They have horrible user interface, lots of glitches and are poorly supported by the manufacturer (as soon as a newer generation is released, older gens are "forgotten"). They do play Divx, this is the only thing going for them, but even this is not 100% working, with some files that just won't work and issues with subtitles, that lead a lot of people to transcode anyhow.

Bottom line, we at TVersity, do not recommend any HD media streamer, and think that both the 360 and the PS3 are a much much better buy. You get so much more for the money and when you do upgrade to a core 2 duo machine, transcoding at DVD quality and even 540p (which is half 1080p) is a non issue and will consume a reasonable amount of resources.

I personally, love the UI of the PS3, even more than the 360, but both are really great devices, so you cannot go wrong with them.

Am I imagining things or was there not a poster on this forum that kept just such a list that compared products to features...? It has been a while so it may not be up to date...

Ok, I will do a little digging and see if I can find it...

I am yet to see one that truly supports 1080p

LimHD200i = 1080p

K

Have you found any such matrix yet? I started a post (whoops) looking for the exact same info...