Chris Lanier's Blog

News, Analysis, and Opinion on Microsoft Digital Media Technologies (and TGB News!)

Wednesday, March 05, 2008 - Posts

  • VidaBox Media Servers Now Provide HD DVD & Blu-ray Storage and Streaming Capabilities

    WESTBURY, NY – March 5th – VidaBox LLC is proud to announce new HD DVD & Blu-ray storage and streaming abilities on their line of premium media center systems. Unencrypted titles can be copied onto a VidaBox server, and then streamed to VidaBox extenders. These capabilities will be debuted in Demo Alley Room 240A at the Electronic House Expo (EHX), running from March 13th through the 15th in Orlando, Florida.

    “We’re excited to include yet another ground-breaking feature in our line of media center systems,” comments Steven Cheung, President of the company. “With HD discs becoming more prevalent in movie collections, there is a growing need to store, manage, and distribute HD DVD & Blu-ray content throughout the house. Our VidaBox systems will be able to meet and exceed those needs, allowing dealers and integrators to offer their customers something truly unique.”

    The addition of HD DVD & Blu-ray streaming compliments the other integrator friendly features already available on VidaBox, such as multi-zone audio streaming, RS-232 & TCP/IP control with vCommand™, and newer additions like vAutomation™ – the custom home automation GUI software w. mControl™ – which will also be debuting at EHX.

    “With VidaBox, end users can now enjoy a solution that covers the entire breadth of AV needs.” Cheung continues, “For example, a RACK16™ server can be installed, and as the stored collection of music, pictures, DVD, HD DVD, & Blu-ray grows, additional space can be purchased at any time. Meanwhile, up to 10 additional ROOMCLIENT v2, RACKCLIENT™ or SLIM™ v2 extenders can be added throughout the home for 10 simultaneous AV streams.  Combined with our multizone audio & home automation integration capabilities, VidaBox truly offers a complete, high definition home solution.”

    For more details and specifications on VidaBox™ & their Blu-ray & HD DVD streaming capabilities, please visit their company website at http://www.vidabox.com, or see a live demonstration of their products in Demo Alley Room 240A at EHX Spring from March 13th through the 15th.

    About VidaBox LLC

    VidaBox LLC is a systems integration company focused on manufacturing premium Media Center systems. VidaBox is on a mission to create user-friendly, and stable high-performance Media Center systems that work right out of the box.

    For more information, visit www.vidabox.com or call 1-516-730-7500.

    Cross Posted from Chris Lanier's Blog at http://msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/
  • Short Bits: Advertising, MAINGEAR, Ultimate PC

    Microsoft has started another round of Media Center/Extender online advertising on sites like The Green Button, AVS Forum, and more.  It is nice to see Microsoft advertising more, but the point still stands that the people who need to know about these technologies are not being informed.  Microsoft needs to wrap up Xbox 360, Zune, Media Center, Extenders, and Vista into a huge advertising campaign directed at people who are not already visiting informed web sources.

    I posted last night about MAINGEAR’s new Media Center PC that uses the beautiful Omaura TF8 chassis.  What is interesting about this is that it has a very low price (~$1400) while still offering integrated features like Blu-ray.  Wallace from MAINGEAR says that CableCARD is coming, so this might be a company to watch out for.

    Microsoft launched a new website dedicated to showing off “Ultimate” PC setups with Vista as the center.  Derek Flickinger shows off his Ultimate Home Theater Blueprints (Alt) on the new site, showcasing everything from Extenders to a McIntosh MX119.

    Cross Posted from Chris Lanier's Blog at http://msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/


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