D-Link DivX box for under $200
D-Link's DSM-330 MediaLounge box can stream DivX and resize output to It's pitched as a bridge between TV and PC, and includes what it claims is a "highly responsive" remote control. Other D-Links, like the latest Windows Media Center extender — wherein you hit a button and then go on vacation while a select committee in the machine deliberates on what the UI's response should be — are perhaps why they make this one of the main points.
Other features include HDMI, component, composite , S-Video or SCART output, with included cables; WM9 and Xvid playback; still image and audio playback; and WEP, WPA and WPA2 compatibility.
Product Page [D-Link]
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Upconverting to 1080p would mean something if the device could handle actual 1080p video in the first place.
Sorry, if you are marketing your $300 media player as 'HD', it damn well better play the codecs people *actually use* for HD video, e.g. h.264.
divx/wmv support only is a joke for a brand new product.
# Supported Video Formats include DivX (including DivX VOD files), Xvid and WMV9 (transcoded on PC)
So it doesn't even actually support wmv fully.
According to the product specs on the linked page:
"Play Digital Videos from the PC and the Internet, Including DivX Videos up to HD 720p"
I don't see anything about upconverting to 1080p.
Just to clear up the issue: the device does not upscale to 1080p, it does upscale to 720p, however.
It natively decodes DivX and Xvid and transcodes WMV on your PC out of the box.
There are simple hacks to allow it to transcode many more formats and containers, including h.264 and .mkv. Future DivX Connected products will likely support h.264 and .mkv natively, as DivX is planning on including them in DivX 7.
The price for this device is $229, but there are rebates available to bring the product down to $179.
Please let me know if I can answer any questions.
Bruce Lidl
DivX, Inc.
Thanks for the correction! Post's updated.
Could you expand on the hacks required to do h264 and mkv? Does this also involve transcoding on the PC or can the device handle 720p h264 directly
In response, to #6, yes, currently there are hacks to do transcoding of h.264/mkv on the PC (720 or 1080, although the end resolution would only be 720).
It's moving to where anything that's playable on the PC is transcode-able, which makes it pretty flexible, but does require a relatively powerful PC.
I had the 320 running wirelessly in the lounge room, it works ok until you hit full-screen pans, water or fire effects then everything jams up. That can get annoying pretty quickly. Still, streaming video wirelessly is a decent effort. I hope this one buffers a little more, and the faster speeds might help.
#8, that's not reassuring.
I'd prefer to serve files off lightweight, quiet NAS. Does this unit support SMB or is it upnp-only? If I wanted to leave my computer running all the time I was watching TV, I'd just hook it up to the TV directly.
So divx is the *only* video codec this unit is natively capable of decoding? No offense to your company Bruce, but if I wanted to use last generation video compression technology, I'd just buy a $20 dvd player and burn the avis to disk. It seems silly to transcode my meticulously encoded collection of DVDs, most of which are in the original VOB format or x264 MKV, into the much lossier divx format. If a two-bit operation like Popcorn Hour can make a unit capable of decoding pretty much anything, including 1080p h.264 onboard for $179, why does this much less capable unit cost more?