DIGITAL MEDIA HUBS AND EXTENDERS
Roku SoundBridge M2000 Network Music Player
Case in point is Roku's SoundBridge, a cool-looking network music hub contained in a slim cylindrical aluminum tube. The M2000 is a full 17'' wide, to fit with your other audio components, and has a large built-in display. For such a small device, the SoundBridge unit does quite a lot. It supports MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, and Ogg Vorbis audio files; it streams Internet radio; and it even has built-in support for Apple's iTunes. The M2000 connects to your PC via wired Ethernet or wireless WiFi connection, and features the standard complement of audio outputs analog RCA, optical digital, and coaxial digital. You control everything with the included wireless remote control; you can browse by song, album, artist, genre, or composer. Song and artist information is displayed on the big 512 x 32 pixel vacuum-fluorescent readout; it's a full 12'' wide, so you won't have to squint. That's big enough to display up to four lines of text. If you're into the whole-house audio thing, just put a SoundBridge unit in all your rooms. You can connect up to ten SoundBridge units to a single computer (just five if you're running iTunes, sorry). Once connected, each individual unit can select different music to play. Pretty cool, and really easy to install and use.
Apple AirPort ExpressHere's something a lot of people don't know: You can use Apple's AirPort Express as a budget digital media hub. You don't get a display, which means you need to queue things up on your computer, but it's a quick and easy digital media solution especially if you're an iTunes user. The AirPort Express works with both PCs and Macs, and connects to your PC via 802.11g WiFi wireless connection.
Slim Devices Squeezebox2 WirelessSlim Devices' Squeezebox2 is unique in that it's a Linux-based network music hub. It's also capable of playing the widest variety of digital file formats: MP3, WMA, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, Apple Lossless, WMA Lossless, FLAC, WAV, and AIFF, as well as raw pass-through of uncompressed PCM audio. The Squeezebox2 is a low-profile unit with built-in display; it connects to your PC via wireless WiFi (802.11g) or wired Ethernet. You can synchronize multiple players for whole-house audio!
Onkyo NC-500 Network Audio ReceiverAs the name implies, Onkyo's NC-500 is actually an audio receiver with networking capabilities. Connect the NC-500 to your home network (via Ethernet), and you can serve music from your PC to your living room or to multiple rooms in your house. And, unlike traditional digital media hubs, this puppy's a full-fledged receiver, which means it has its own built-in amplifier (25 watts x 2 channels); hook up a pair of speakers, and you're ready to rock and roll.
Linksys WMCE54AG Media Center ExtenderIf you have a Media Center PC somewhere in your house (doesn't have to be in your living room; we could be talking about a desktop model here), you can serve audio and video to any room in your house with a Media Center Extender. This Linksys device is one such unit; it works via wired Ethernet or wireless 802.11a/g WiFi, and transmits music, videos, and photographs from your main Media Center PC. It comes with its own remote control, of course; operation is facilitated by the easy-to-use onscreen display.
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EAN: 2147483647
Pages: 126