HP introduced their new HP MediaSmart Receiver x280N at CES 2008. The MediaSmart Receiver plays music, photos, and video from any Windows-based PC in your home onto your HDTV set. This unit is designed for use on any HDTV set – not just HP branded LCD TVs. What’s particularly cool about the x280N is the inclusion of Windows Media Center Extender technology as well as the HP Pocket Media Drive bay (as previously announced by Bill Gates at the pre-keynote speech). This is primarily HP’s way of adding MediaSmart technology to non-HP branded television sets.

With Extender for Windows Media Center integrated in, you can use the x280N as a way to enjoy the Media Center user interface from anywhere in your home. You can watch live or pre-recorded television content and access all of your digital content from the receiver.

The HP Pocket Media Drive Bay allows you to directly access content stored in mass-storage media.

The HP MediaSmart Receiver automatically aggregates and displays content from all connected PC’s or media servers on your home network and not just a single server.

Other features include:

• Support for 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless networking
• Support for the following digital media:
• JPEG, BMP, GIF, and PNG digital images
• WMA, WMA-Pro, WAV, AAC, and MP3 music
• MPEG-2 MP@ML, MPEG2 MP@HL, DivX, Windows Media Video, H.264, and WMV-HD video
• HDMI, Component and analog and digital audio outputs

The MediaSmart receiver is housed in a black, high gloss exterior with an HP exclusive “Zen” imprint pattern. It also comes with a universal remote control.

Other specs include:

• 720p (60Hz) 1080i video output
• 1 HDMI out, 1 component out, 1 stereo analog audio out, 1 optical out, 2 USB ports, 1 HP Pocket Media Drive Bay
• Ethernet and Wi-Fi support
• Support for WMP11, UPnP, and DLNA compliant servers
• Measures 9.5 x 9.5 x 1.8 inches and weighs 3.5 lbs

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