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Stream high definition content from Viiv PCs

I-O DATA today announced its latest AVeL LinkPlayer2 for Intel Viiv. The latest AVeL LinkPlayer2 for Intel Viiv serves double duty as a standalone DVD player and digital media adapter. It is one of the first commercial devices to sport Intel's Viiv platform.

When coupled with an Intel Viiv PC running Windows XP or Vista the AVeL LinkPLayer2 for Intel Viiv can stream audio and video content from the PC to your TV. High definition video formats are supported, but an Ethernet connection is required for content streaming in HD.

As a standalone player the AVeL LinkPlayer2 for Intel Viiv can playback a variety of video formats including high definition video formats. While I-O Data touts the AVeL LinkPlayer2 for Intel Viiv as being high definition capable, it does not playback HD DVD or Blu-ray high definition formats. Nevertheless, the AVeL LinkPlayer2 supports 1080i/720p video files encoded with Windows Media Video 9 HD, MPEG2 and DivX HD. Audio and video files can also be played off of an external hard disk or flash drive using the player’s USB 2.0 port too.

The player does not support HDMI video output, but component video outputs are available.

The player is available immediately with an MSRP of $279.

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Basically Useless
By Goty on 1/3/07, Rating: 0
RE: Basically Useless
By MrDiSante on 1/3/2007 3:54:43 PM , Rating: 2
Agreed. I'd take a WMC + extender anyday over this. Anyone have any reasonable idea of why I shouldn't use Vista + Xbox / XP MCE + Xbox over this? No? Didn't think so.


By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 1/3/2007 4:03:01 PM , Rating: 2
I dont think you can use WMC extenders for Divx -- correct?


RE: Basically Useless
By ToeCutter on 1/4/2007 8:40:06 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Anyone have any reasonable idea of why I shouldn't use Vista + Xbox / XP MCE + Xbox over this? No? Didn't think so.


Um, yeah.

How about a full length film in 720p w/AC3 on a single DVDR?

All this courtesy of a nifty little codec called Divx.



RE: Basically Useless
By blckgrffn on 1/3/2007 4:40:36 PM , Rating: 2
I think the best part of this is being able to play files off of a USB2.0 hard drive/enclosure. No need for a media center PC then. Too bad it doesn't seem to have a firewire port, that would allow for some cool daisy chain HD expansion.

It doesn't seem that the interface could be as snappy as that on MCE or other similar players, but I could be wrong.





RE: Basically Useless
By GaryJohnson on 1/3/2007 6:49:42 PM , Rating: 2
An enclosure that can play its own files:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82...


RE: Basically Useless
By uofahoefx on 1/3/2007 4:46:20 PM , Rating: 2
I may be wrong but I think you guys are missing the point.

A VIIV PC + IO Data media adapter = Vista MCE + Extender.

This gives you the ability to change the channel, play music and video from your viiv pc just like the XBOX media center extender.


RE: Basically Useless
By VooDooAddict on 1/4/2007 3:10:23 PM , Rating: 1
I own the AVeL LinkPlayer(1) I've owned it for nearly 18 months now.

It's a great device for the non-techies in the house. I think I picked it up for around $200. At that price it was far cheaper then building an HTPC or getting another xbox(1) to mod into the XBMC.

An update to the product to officially handle HD sounds nice. The current unit seems to handle 720p Divx files (Unsure as to the encoded bitrate).

My only complaints with Ver1 are the slow menu response times and the inability of the unit to handle large collections of music on RANDOM ALL (But I bought it for Video not music :) ).

Ver 1 is also nice up scaler. The above mentioned 720p Divx files play on my 30" HD CRT @ 1080i.

Considering Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition OEM is already half the cost of this unit before any hardware... I think it's a good value over a full HTPC.

I think the biggest competition for this thing is the XBox360.


New functionality?
By jp7189 on 1/4/2007 12:06:08 PM , Rating: 2
I have an Avel LinkPlayer2. This one's silver and mines black, but otherwise this seems to be the same player it has been for years.

Am I missing something?




RE: New functionality?
By ToeCutter on 1/4/2007 8:44:04 PM , Rating: 2
I was thinking the EXACT same thing.

The only thing I see different about this offering is the addition of "..for Intel VIIV".

I'm thinking strictly a marketing move.

Seems to be par for the course for IO Data. Their firmware updates have successively broken far more features then they've fixed.


By Mike101 on 1/4/2007 9:02:49 AM , Rating: 2
I have had the linkplayer2 for about 2.5 years and its been able to do HD content streams since it was released. Granted it cant do the new H.264 but there is nothing preventing you from converting H.264 to H.263/HD-Divx or similar HD formats (TS/WMV9). You will be limited to 1080i instead of 1080P but interestingly enough I have played 1080P video streams through it output at 1080i and guess what it looks incredible. Its not crappy upscale either its true 1080 streams. Now it not 1080P capable but who cares 1080i is not obsolete because P is available. Besides you would need a really big screen tv to even notice the difference. I have a Toshiba 65" HDTV and there is no rush to get a unit that supports P especially since I dont believe there is a single HDTV station broadcasting it or has plans to. Its also an incredible media player on its own and if you run a program called WIZD on your PC you can stream any content your PC plays through the linkplayer2. The only limitations are of course 1080i output instead of 1080P. It has no HDMI but thats not a big deal since the component output does a nice job and I use my Home theater receiver for sound not built in tv speakers. The DVD drive is just that a DVD drive and when you get down to it Blue-Ray and HD-DVD are nothing more than higher capacity disc's. No magic there. Im sooner looking toward 300TB hard drives from Seagate in 2010 than BlueRay or HD-DVD and streaming HD video than anything else. Maybe an XBOX 360 will replace this now that you can stream more HD content to it but otherwise the best $250.00 I spent.




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