Sonos also introduced two new ZonePlayer devices today - the ZonePlayer 120 and the ZonePlayer 90 - as well as a new money-saving bundle - the Sonus Bundle 150 which includes one 120 unit, one 90 unit, and a Sonos Controller 100 device. The new ZonePlayers incorporate SonosNet 2.0, Sonos’ latest wireless mesh network which doubles the wireless range of the Sonos Multi-Room Music System. The extended range also works with all previous generation Sonos ZonePlayers, Controllers, and ZoneBridges. Here’s what you need to know about the new units.

The Sonos ZonePlayer 120 features:

• Smallest, lightest, and most powerful Sonos ZonePlayer yet
• Fan-less aluminum case
• 55 watts per channel RMS at 8 Ohms
• THD+N < 0.02%, 20Hz-20kH
• Can be connected directly to speakers
• Class-D amplifier
• Line-In RCA jacks
• Measures 3.5 x 7.3 x 8.15 inches and weighs 5.1 lbs

The 120 will retail for $499 individually.

The Sonos ZonePlayer 90 features:

• Lacks amplifier - can be connected to existing stereo systems
• THD+N < 0.009%, 20-20kHz
• Line Out: Analog RCA, Digital (optical and coaxial)
• Line In: Analog RCA, auto-detecting
• Measures 5.4 x 5.5 x 2.9 inches and weighs 1.5 lbs

The 90 will retail for $349 individually.

Now for the new Sonos Bundle 150, you get one of the ZonePlayer 120 units, one of the ZonePlayer 90 units, and one Sonos Controller device. The bundle sells for $999 which is a 20% discount from the sum of the individual components. You can also purchase the bundle with Sonos loudspeakers for $1149.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Sonos, ZonePlayer 120, ZonePlayer 90, Sonos Bundle 150

Attention Sonos owners out there - Sonos released version 2.6 of their Sonos System Software today which gives customers access to free music downloads valued at around $200 dollars once they register their new or upgrade their existing Sonos Multi-Room Music System. The one-button update is free to all Sonos customers and is available now for download.

Once you register or upgrade your system with the new Sonos 2.6 software, you will receive $200 dollars worth of DRM-free music from Sonos partners Classical.com, eMusic, and LiveDownloads.com. Sonos provided an example of what registered customers would receive:

• 3 DRM-free albums (1 classical, 1 jazz and 1 world) from Classical.com. Classical.com is a digital music service with a library dedicated to the latest and greatest classical, jazz, & blues and world music. Browse by composer, genre or country and explore new music with the Classical.com playlists.
• 50 DRM-free music downloads and 1 free audio book from eMusic. eMusic is the world’s largest retailer of independent music, offering more than 3.5 million tracks from thousands of the world’s top independent labels spanning every genre of music.
• 10 full, DRM-free concerts (MP3) from LiveDownloads.com. LiveDownloads is the ultimate download source for live concert recordings. Download last night’s show from hundreds of artists and browse the catalog of more than 100,000 exclusive live tracks.

Other new features added in Sonos 2.6 include:

• Support for SonosNet™ 2.0 and MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) wireless technology
• Support for larger music collections with up to 65,000 tracks stored on a local music collection stored on a PC, Mac or Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices
• Support for NasBasic firmware which allows more than 15 different brands of NAS devices to serve as a local music source
• Support for Apple® Computer operating system Mac OS X Leopard

You can read more about Sonos Software 2.6 by going to http://www.sonos.com/support/software_updates/

More Sonos news to come..

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Sonos System Software 2.6, Update

Popcorn Hour has announced a new enhanced version of their popular A-100 model called the Popcorn Hour A-110. Major features and improvements with the A-110 include the following:

• Support for 2.5 inch/3.5 inch SATA Hard Drives
• USB Slave functionality
• Support for HDMI 1.3a
• Full support of HD Audio pass-through for DTS HD-HR, DTS HD-MA, Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD (ha.. you know what this means!)
• USB port moved to the rear
• Optical S/PDIF instead of the co-axial S/PDIF connector in the first model
• Hardware reset button

As before, the A110 allows you to play content stored either directly on the device or streaming from the network. The device supports playback from PCs, NAS’s, digital cameras, USB mass storage devices, internal SATA HDDs, and even via the Internet through the Media Service Portal.

The supported codec list is just too long to write here.. so make sure to check out the webpage at popcornhour.com. I’ve yet to directly play with the device but a friend of mine has the A100 and absolutely loves it. The asking price for the A110 is $215. Well worth it when you consider what it’s capable of.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Popcorn Hour A-110

HP, Linksys, and D-Link won’t be the only ones with standalone Media Center Extenders anymore. Samsung has announced that their upcoming MediaLive adapter will be coming out in August for an estimated price of around $200 dollars. Like other Extenders for Windows Media Centers, MediaLive connects to PC’s running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate and delivers the familiar Windows Media Center interface on a large screen TV set. 

MediaLive will support the streaming of the following forms of content:

• For online content, it will be Media Center online content providers such as Vongo, MovieLink, Showtime TV, XM Radio, and Fox Sports
• For audio, it will be WMA, MP3, and AC3
• For video, it will be WMV, MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264
• For pictures, it will be JPEG

MediaLive supports both USB 2.0 Slave and USB 2.0 Host specs and has an HDMI CEC port as well as an Ethernet port. The unit measures 270 x 48 x 155 mm and weighs around 1.8kg. The MediaLive will be available in August for an estimated price of $200 dollars.

It’s also important to note that the MediaLive adapter is cheaper than the upcoming HP MediaSmart Connect Extender. Also note - the MediaLive picture is from Gizmodo.

Technorati Tags: Samsung MediaLive, Extender for Windows Media Center

Kodak released a number of high definition related products today related to content creation, content viewing, and content sharing. The first product we’ll be talking about is the new Kodak Theatre HD Player - a standalone networked media player designed to display personal and web-based content on your HDTV set. The unit connects to your home Wi-Fi network and allows you to retrieve pictures, videos, music, web-content from all types of sources including your PC, USB flash drive, SC memory card, or online websites like YouTube, Kodak Gallery, Flickr, or RadioTime. Pictures can be displayed in 16:9 aspect ratios while videos are displayed at 720p resolutions.

Technorati Tags: Kodak, Theatre HD Player

Sony announced that the mylo COM-2 Personal Communicator has a new video upload tool that allows users to capture and upload MPEG-4 videos without the need of a PC. Videos can be recorded using the built-in 1.3 megapixel camera and then uploaded using the built-in Wi-Fi support.

With the mylo, users can listen to digital music, video videos, and play games. However, when they’re near wireless hotspots, they can also view multimedia content online, chat with others using Skype, IM with users using AIM, Yahoo!, Google, and Skype, and read/write email through AOL Mail, Google Gmail, and Yahoo! mail.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Sony mylo COM-2 Personal Communicator, video upload

It looks like there might be more to the Roku Netflix Player than just Netflix content. According to Roku’s Vice President of Consumer Products, Tim Twerdahl, additional content partners will be coming to Netflix Player which makes the $99 price even more attractive than ever before. Of course Mr. Twerdahl didn’t elaborate on who these providers might be but one could imagine YouTube videos coming to the player as well as other free services out there. Of course, it’s not far fetched to imagine additional paid services coming to the player so who knows? But.. the truth is, I’d be perfectly happy if Netflix were to offer streaming HD content with the player.

Finally, don’t forget about the rumors that Netflix might be coming to either the Xbox 360 console or the Sony PlayStation 3.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Roku Netflix Player,

Do you want the capabilities of the Roku Netflix Player on your TV set yet don’t want to shell out $99 bucks for the player itself? Well this posting on Lifehacker shows how you COULD get a similar experience IF you have an Xbox 360 and a Windows PC lying about on a home network. The key to making this work is a combination of an add-in called the vmcNetFlix add-in, Extender for Windows Media Center, and the Netflix Watch-Instantly component. The vmcNetFlix add-in software can be downloaded here and make sure to read the notes on the webpage.

I tried out the software last night and while I saw the plugin on my Extender screen, I failed to get video playback working. Truth be told - I didn’t spend too much time on it so I’ll look into it more tonight. Now, keep in mind folks - this is a cool alternative to the Roku Netflix Player IF you have all the components already. If you don’t have an Xbox 360 and you don’t play video games, then it probably makes very little sense to go and buy an Xbox 360 strictly for Netflix content. You’re better off getting the Roku player itself.  Having said that, there are also rumors that Microsoft and Netflix are closing in on a deal that would have Netflix’s Watch Now service available for the Xbox console. All good news for Netflix and of course the Microsoft Xbox 360 console.

[Check it out via News.com]

Technorati Tags: Netflix, Microsoft, Watch Now, Windows Media Center, vmcNetflix Add-in

I just came across another review of the Roku Netflix Player (it’s a few weeks old now) and thought I’d pass it along. The review comes from the folks at HDTV Magazine and is similar to many other reviews on the net. Here’s the summary from their review:

Could be better with access to newer movies, but definitely recommended if you’re a Netflix subscriber with unlimited instant viewing.

That’s pretty much right on the mark. Seriously - for $100 bucks and nothing else to pay, this seems like a no-brainer for those WHO ALREADY have a Netflix. (if you don’t… well you should! And no.. I’m not associated with Netflix in any way. I’m just a fan!). Seriously, the Roku player makes all the sense in the world from a on-demand perspective. If Netflix can somehow garner additional movie studio support, then you’ve got yourself an extremely formidable player (though it would be nice if the unit had HD support too!)

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Roku Netflix Player, HDTV Magazine, Review

HP has announced that their upcoming HP MediaSmart Connect device is now available for pre-order at various retailers including Amazon.com and Newegg for a suggested retail price of $349. The MediaSmart Connect was introduced at CES 2008 as a way to bring HP MediaSmart TV technology to non-HP HDTV sets. With the MediaSmart Connect connected to your HDTV and your home network, you’ll be able to stream digital content from your computers straight to your HDTV set. In addition, MediaSmart Connect features Extender for Windows Media Center technology which allows you to access Windows Media Center enabled PCs remotely over the network.

The HP MediaSmart Connect is able to connect to other UPnP and DLNA compliant devices as well as products from their MediaSmart product line including the HP Media Vault and the HP MediaSmart Server.

The technical specs are as follows:

• Supports 720p/1080i
• HDMI out, Component out, Stereo analog out, Digital audio out, 2 USB ports
• HP Pocket Media Drive Bay
• Wi-Fi - 802.11 a/b/g/n
• 10/100 Ethernet
• Photo - JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG
• Music - MP2, MP3, WMA, WMA-Pro, AAC(m4a)
• Video - MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MP@ML, MPEG-2 MP@HL, MPEG-4 ASP, DivX, WMV, WMV-HD, DVR-MS, H.264 (MP4)
• DivX certified
• Supports Snapfish, CinemaNow, Live365, YouTube(coming soon)
• Supports Windows Media Player 11, UPnP, and DLNA compliant systems
• Piano Black finish
• Gloss with Zen pattern
• Includes HDMI cable
• 5 device universal remote
• Measures 8.5 x 8.5 x 1.8 inches and weighs 3.5 lbs

The MediaSmart Connect can be preordered starting today for $349 at Amazon.com, BestBuy, CircuitCity, and Newegg.com. The device includes an HDMI cable, a learning remote control and a $20 dollar CinemaNow movie certificate.

It’s a shame that the MediaSmart Connect only supports 720p/1080i and not 1080p. Also - at $349 - it’s a bit expensive for a Windows Media Center Extender - especially without a built-in DVD drive.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: HP, MediaSmart Connect, Extender for Windows Media Center