Streaming media into your living room.

You want movies, photos and music from the HDD to the TV or stereo system to play? That, the industry promises to go easy today and without a PC - Streaming makes it possible. We have tried, how easy it really is.

 

When it comes to media files, are most of us apparently still hunters and gatherers. On the hard drives of our computers are piling up thousands of songs in MP3 format, stacked with gigabytes of digital photos, store a variety of video, digital video recording and backup files from DVDs.

Thus, the majority of media files in the wrong place, because we would actually much prefer it in the living room. No problem, says the industry, there are so called streaming client, the media data on the television or stereo system brings. Only: Which is right?

The descriptions of producer sound promising: "Simple" should proceed "without tricky settings on network." The devices have the supposedly "the finest technical refinements" and give "all media file types on the TV again." The range is almost overwhelming, the differences for laymen hardly discernible. Is correspondingly high then the disappointment when the new device files for the service failure or lack of connection options.

The tester

We have seven units under the microscope, for example, have the same functionality. Basis of selection were mainly three criteria: The clients should be networked, which means over the network data received from external sources (eg network disks). Condition was also found that the devices via the HDMI interface data in full high-definition resolution (1080 lines) to bring the TV. And the device should be as many audio and video formats support.

In the selection of this kind came streaming following clients:

The Popcorn Hour A110 from Syabas Technology (from 235 Euros)
The TViX M-7000A by DViCO (from 390 Euros)
Networked Media Player of the PX-MX500L from Plextor (from 240 Euros)
Media Station Pro from Verbatim (from 199 Euros)
The Screenplay Pro HD from Iomega (from 180 Euros)
The Movie Cube from Emtec S800 (from 270 Euros)
The Digital Entertainer by Netgear EVA 8000 (from 160 euros).

The list of equipment with the required properties is by no means complete. However, many other clients on similar hardware and / or software such as the above.

On the possibilities of the individual devices, we proceed in the extensive picture gallery On.

What problems arise? What are the demands of the technique to you and your equipment? blogs ONLINE answered the questions.