{"id":21,"date":"2008-06-26T16:58:28","date_gmt":"2008-06-26T16:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.digitalmediaphile.com\/2008\/06\/26\/HP+MediaSmart+Connect+X280n.aspx"},"modified":"2011-06-09T05:18:12","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T12:18:12","slug":"hp-mediasmart-connect-x280n","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/2008\/06\/26\/hp-mediasmart-connect-x280n\/","title":{"rendered":"HP MediaSmart Connect x280n"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"x280n_sm\" HP was kind enough to send me an early near production version of their soon to be released (July 31) MediaSmart Connect<\/a> Home Theater component. I\u2019ve had a few minutes to take a VERY quick look and the first impression is: It\u2019s great!<\/p>\n

Nice looking hardware, piano black finish (production units will have a neat Zen imprint) with a solid heft\/feel. Connections for component and HDMI (720p and 1080i supported on both). An HDMI cable is included (nice touch). Audio jacks include RCA stereo (analog) and Optical Digital (SPDIF). No Coax digital, but that suits me just fine. I ranted some about the lack of Optical output on the \u201dcompeting\u201d (and I use that term loosely) Linksys DMA-2100.<\/p>\n

802.11a\/b\/g\/n (Draft 2.0n) wireless (and 10\/100 Ethernet) connect this device to your home network. The device sports USB ports front and rear and includes a HP Pocket Media Drive Bay (the 21st century version of sneaker net storage used to move your digital \u201cstuff\u201d between computers and devices). <\/p>\n

If you are looking at size and aesthetics, this image shows the sizes of the x280n, the Linksys DMA-2200 (the 2100 is even smaller and as I blogged, chintzy in feel and cheap looking), the D-Link theater component size DSM-750, and an Xbox 360. For me, it is a draw between the component sized D-Link which, in the real world would fit nicely on the rack that holds my home theater receiver and the HP x280n which would fit nicely and discreetly on top of or under the TV. Top to bottom: HP MediaSmart x280n, Linksys DMA-2200, D-Link DSM-750, Xbox 360.<\/p>\n

\"extenders <\/p>\n

HP includes a really nice handheld remote. It\u2019s certainly the best of the remotes offered with any of the extenders I\u2019ve seen. It\u2019s backlit (which for me is a must in a darkened room). Setting up the x280n was menu driven and simple. It found several of my 2.4GHz  \u201cN\u201d networks (I\u2019m not certain it is seeing 5GHz N yet, more to come). I associated it, entered the WPA2-PSK passphrase and it was off and running. The first thing it did was check for new firmware. Finding a newer version, it downloaded and applied the newer firmware. After a reboot, it was back up and ready for action. <\/p>\n

I elected to set it up as a Media Center Extender first and verify that my OCUR\/DCT high def streaming was good to go. No problem there. Since I can do MCX setups in my sleep, and at the speed of light, I was able to quickly get through setup and watch Live and Recorded HD TV. <\/p>\n

Exploring the HP MediaSmart interface:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had a short amount of time to explore HP\u2019s MediaSmart proprietary interface for Media Sharing. I used Windows Media Sharing and UPnP streaming from a server. I have yet to setup HP\u2019s own MediaSmart gateway software, but I\u2019ll get to that. HP has developed a slick and intuitive interface which can be used with Windows XP, Vista, and most likely will be future proof, at least for a while. I like the HP interface and functionality slightly more than D-Link\u2019s MediaLounge interface. Linksys has no such secondary interface. I was easily able to start playing some music and access my photos and play a slide show. This works almost exactly the same way it does on the Media Center Extender interface. All in all, in my first look, a nice, user friendly, solid piece of hardware with great functionality. <\/p>\n

\"hp<\/p>\n

\"photo_interface\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be updating this post as time permits as I continue to explore and experiment.<\/p>\n

Technorati tags: HP<\/a>, MediaSmart<\/a>, x280n<\/a>, Media Center Extender<\/a>, Media Center<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HP was kind enough to send me an early near production version of their soon to be released (July 31) MediaSmart Connect Home Theater component. I\u2019ve had a few minutes to take a VERY quick look and the first impression is: It\u2019s great! Nice looking hardware, piano black finish (production units will have a neat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[35],"tags":[288,41,45],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":6}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":""},"post_excerpt_stackable":"

HP was kind enough to send me an early near production version of their soon to be released (July 31) MediaSmart Connect Home Theater component. I\u2019ve had a few minutes to take a VERY quick look and the first impression is: It\u2019s great! Nice looking hardware, piano black finish (production units will have a neat Zen imprint) with a solid heft\/feel. Connections for component and HDMI (720p and 1080i supported on both). An HDMI cable is included (nice touch). Audio jacks include RCA stereo (analog) and Optical Digital (SPDIF). No Coax digital, but that suits me just fine. I ranted…<\/p>\n","category_list":"Technology<\/a>","author_info":{"name":"Barb","url":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/author\/barb\/"},"comments_num":"0 comments","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pvFKI-l","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalmediaphile.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}