Multimedia Servers

Tips and Tricks

• Easy, Efficient Hi-Def Video Playback - Talks about ripping HD video to hard drive as well as the equipment and software involved in making it happen.

Hardware Picks

• Apple TV - Astetically pleasing device that, unfortunately, does not support full HD resolution but comes close.
• Netgear Digital Entertainer HD EVA8000 - Requires Windows XP but might be a better contender than the Apple TV.
• Escient Vision VS-100/VS-200 - Check out the specs.
• Harmon Kardon DMC 1000 - Check the specs.
• Alienware Hanger18 HD Entertainment Center - Support 1080p resolution, supports up to four TV tuner cards, and includes 5.1 amplified sound. Uses Windows Media Center as the main interface. Does not require a TiVo-like subscription service (all free). Can record up to 2TB of data. Hard to tell what version of HDMI it supports though.

Software Picks

• Boxee - An up and coming open source media centere software that shows a lot of promise.
• XBMC - Media center software that runs on a variety of operation systems.