CES 2009

Here's a cool little product that I can't wait to try out: The Pogoplug. It's a simple and releatively cheap box that plugs into an external hard drive (or flash drive) via USB, and also into you home's Internet connection. Then it puts the hard drive on the Web as well as on your local network. Any computer in your home can access it as a shared drive, and people outside can also connect to it over the Web. It sounds like a very quick and simple way to put a whole bunch of files online for friends to see.

Pogoplug connects your USB drives to the Internet.

Now, it's no great feat for a geek to wire up a PC or a network-attached storage drive for Internet access. What the Pogoplug does is not utterly unique. The company is going for ease of use, though. Instead of having to open ports on your router, or configure a NAS for Web access, with Pogoplug you just go to the company's Web site, enter the identifying code from your device (presumably, it's stamped on it somewhere), and then the Pogoplug servers will set up the routing for you and give you your device's Web address.

You could, also, upload your files to a sharing service like Flickr or YouTube. In comparison, Pogoplug will make the upload faster (it's local), and should also give you more control over your files (if you want to remove them, for example), and who can see them.

One thing I would be concerned about for home users: Many home broadband connections are much slower on the upload than download. People who want to download your raw AVI home movie files from your drive may be limited by the speed that your Pogoplug-attached drive can upload to the Net. If the device streams video this should not be a big issue.

Other promised features inlcude an iPhone interface (for upload as well as viewing), and an open API for developers.

It's not out yet so I haven't tried it; I don't know if it's as easy as it should be, or if the security is appropriate for its target use. But the price is right for this utility: $99 retail. I could really use this, and look forward to trying it when the first units are made available in February.

Due out in March, the FreeAgent Theater HD media player starts at $130 for a standalone unit.

(Credit: Seagate)

Western Digital recently released an HD media player that was designed to leverage the content people were storing on that company's external storage devices. Now Seagate's followed suit with a similar product, the Seagate FreeAgent Theater HD media player, which connects to your TV and plays back video, pictures, and music from external storage devices.

Seagate describes the FreeAgent Theater as an accessory that enables "people to easily enjoy stored digital media on their TV screens rather than their computer monitors." It works like this: you transfer files from your computer to your FreeAgent Go--or another storage device--then dock the device in the FreeAgent Theater via a USB connection. The little black box has the processing power and the codecs onboard to read a wide variety of file formats, including MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, and DIVX files with support for NTSC, PAL, and HD resolutions up to 1080i (there's also support for subtitles). The audio formats supported include 5.1-channel surround sound (if available) and popular digital-audio formats including MP3, WMA, WAV, and OGG. Naturally, there an easy-to-use onscreen interface that makes navigating your files easier. (when we get our review unit, we'll let you know just how user-friendly it truly is, of course).

The Seagate FreeAgent Theater HD Media Player will be available in March and comes in a stand-alone unit ($129.99 MSRP) or a package that ships with a FreeAgent Go portable drive. You can choose between configurations that include a 250GB ($229.99 MSRP) or 500GB (MSRP of $299.99) capacity FreeAgent Go Drive. All configurations include a remote.

Several of these types of products are hitting the market, so Seagate is not alone here, but it will be interesting to compare this model with Western Digital's WD TV Media Player, which also starts at $130, and boasts 1080p output, and Kodak's Theater HD player, which has a tentative list price at $300. Another product in this category is the even more affordable Iomega ScreenPlay TV Link.

MySpace's sidebar slides out on the screen of a Widget Channel-compatible TV.

(Credit: MySpace)

We've heard a bit now about the Widget Channel, the partnership between Intel and Yahoo designed to bring Web functions like photo sharing and stock prices to living room TV sets. Well, MySpace is one of the partners on board: the News Corp.-owned social network has created a "widget for TV" that lets its members access a variety of features from Widget Channel-compatible TVs.

Basically, this means that you can install a MySpace widget in the Widget Channel "dock," and expand it in order to access profiles, status updates, in-box messages, and other site features. The widget was created, MySpace said, with the MySpaceID project that sprung out of its Data Availability initiative late last year.

So it's more or less MySpace on your TV. But that makes sense--with competitor Facebook having more or less bested it on the networking front, MySpace has begun to establish itself more as a media portal. The TV widget could potentially make for some cool developments in the future. MySpace Music playlists, for example, could make a nice addition to the home entertainment center.

And MySpace hopes this will only be the start of further off-the-PC endeavors. A release Wednesday hinted at a future presence on devices like DVD players and set-top boxes. And MySpace has also been ramping up its mobile offerings--the last development, which we heard about a month ago, was streaming video.

The new Media Hub NAS servers, MNH400 and NMH300, from Linksys.

(Credit: Linksys)

Network-attached storage servers, in my opinion, have generally not been user-friendly enough. Even the easiest-to-use ones require some getting used to.

This is looking to change with the two new Media Hub series released under the networking giant's marketing brand "Linksys by Cisco" at CES this year, the NMH400 and the NMH300.

The NMH300 series is a budget solution that offers just the core features of the Media Hub, and you need to use a computer to manage the device.

The NMH400 series, on the other hand, features an LCD screen that lets users view a variety of information and perform certain tasks without a PC, such as updating firmware or making instant backups. The NMH400 series also has a 6-in-1 card reader for users to transfer content of flash media onto the Media Hub without the need for a computer.

Much like the HP MediaVault, both Media Hub series feature two hard-drive bays--each can take SATA hard drives of any sizes. One of the bays is occupied with a drive from Linksys. The NMH300 series come with a 500GB hard drive, while the NMH400 series also offer an option of 1TB. The second bay is left empty for users to upgrade.

According to Linksys, the new NAS servers share common Media Hub features, including an easy graphical user interface, simple remote access, and easy-to-operate backup functions. They also boast a friendly design and silent operation that allows them to reside anywhere in the house.

The rest of the core Media Hub feature list includes:

• Two USB ports for external storage and one media reader that supports CF/MD/MS/SD/XD/MMC memory cards
• Gigabit Ethernet connection
• RAID1/JBOD configurations
• Support for SMB/CIF protocol: network users can access the NAS server the same way they access another computer in the network
• PC backup with NTI Shadow software: automatic scheduled backup available
• On-demand backup via GUI or LCD Continuous backup option available
• User-friendly way to import media content with Linksys Media Importer
• DLNA 1.5 certified. Ability to stream content to Xbox 360 or UPnP DMA devices and support iTunes server
• Support for up to three simultaneous HD streams
• Automated "crawl" for UPnP servers to index and aggregate all digital media in the home
• User-friendly, browser-based media browser to view JPEG pictures, play MP3 and WMA music, and manage system configuration
• Media server support for most content formats: Audio: M4A, M4B, MP4, 3GP, WAV, OGG, FLAC, AAC, MP2, AC3, MPA, MP1, AIF, ASF Photo: PNG, TIF, TIFF, BMP, GIF Video: MP1, MPG, SPTS, MP4, AVI, VOB, DivX, 3GP, VDR, MPE, DVR-MS, Xvid, M1V, M4V, MOV, MPV
• Playlists: M3U, M3U8, PLS, WPL
• Remote access using DDNS in combination with Linksys relaying service to cover up to 100 percent of all Internet users

The new Media Hub NAS servers are expected to be available in the first quarter of 2009, and cost $300 (500GB NMH300) and $350 (500GB NMH400). You can also get the 1TB version of the NMH400 series for $430.

The Digital Entertainer Elite EVA9150 at Netgear's CES demo.

(Credit: Dong Ngo/CNET Networks)

During CES 2007, Netgear joined the home entertainment department with the Netgear EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD, a networked digital content streaming device. Two years later, Netgear unveils the device's successor, the Digital Entertainer Elite EVA9150, which offers a few significant improvements.

First off, it now comes with a 500GB internal hard drive for extra local content storage. This means the device now not only works as a media-streaming device but it can also store content on its own. The hard drive is even removable so you can change or replace it with a larger hard drive.

Secondly, the new player now sports Draft N wireless (as opposed to the sluggish 802.11g in the EVA8000), making it a true wireless HD media streamer. The device supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies with a speed of up to 300Mbps.

The EVA9150's wired connection, however, remains at 100Mbps, which is disappointing considering its wireless connection could be three times as fast.

Like the EVA8000, the new player can plays video, MP3s, and digital photos from PCs, Macs, or a network attached storage device to your HDTV. It can streams media directly from the Internet sources, such as YouTube, Internet radio, Flickr photos, RSS feeds, and podcasts. The EVA9150 can also automatically find all shared digital media files on your home network and organizes them into an easily accessible library.

The Digital Entertainer Elite EVA9150 has a long list of supported multimedia content formats, including:

• MP3 up to 320Kbps or variable bit rate
• WMA8 and WMA9 files up to 192 Kbps or variable bit rate
• WMV9 up to 1080p (to 40Mbps)
• Internet radio (streaming MP3)
• Video codecs: MPEG 1/2/4 SD; MPEG-2 HD; HP@HL to 40 Mbps; MPEG-4 Part 2 HP@HL to 10 Mbps (Xvid); H.264 HP@HL 4.1, VC1/WMV9HD to 1080p 40 Mbps
• Video file formats: AVI, DivX, Xvid, WMV9, MOV, M4V, VOB, MPG, MP1, MP2, MP4, ISO, IFO, MKV (with AC3 only), TS, M2TS, PS Audio formats: MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, FLAC, WMA-Pro, M4A, M4P, AC3, DTS pass-through, PCM, LPCM, AIFF
• Photo formats: JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF

On the back of the device, you will find the following ports:

• HDMI for audiovisual output
• RCA connector for composite video output
• RCA connectors for component video output (high-definition support)
• Digital audio output S/PDIF (coaxial/optical)
• Stereo RCA audio ports
• USB 2.0 port
• Ethernet port
• S-Video port
• SCART composite and RGB

Netgear's new Digital Entertainer Elite EVA9150 is expected to be available in the U.S. in February for $399. In the meantime, you can check out CNET's review of the Netgear EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD for more information.

The EVA9150's ports

(Credit: Netgear)