Microsoft have this week announced the introduction of media player service Plex to their Xbox games consoles, opening up more streaming services to the next-gen gaming devices.

To be released for the Xbox One later this week, and planned for a later date on the Xbox 360, the application is one which enables viewers to access video content such as films, on-demand TV shows, and short clips through their personal library of favorites – regardless of the website it came from.

For its Xbox One release, Plex are believed to be planning to allow users access to genre/cast-based ‘customized categories’ in browsing, and recommendations from across the streaming world based on history, service availability and general viewing habits.

Other features include ‘On Deck’, the ability for users to keep track of the shows that they are watching, with the chance to continue at the exact point they stopped or have suggested next episodes to watch.

The release will be seen as strange by many, as the Xbox console was the original hardware that first ran what many consider the best media center ever, XBMC.

For fans of the NHL, meanwhile, there is a bonus ability of being able to follow their franchise of choice by way of a personalised experience and highlights effort. For Xbox-specific developments, meanwhile, users will be able to control the app through Xbox Kinect motion sensor and voice-based controls.

Whether the more complete video experience can be seen as a sufficient expansion to Xbox’s ‘not console but entertainment hub’ plans will be discovered over time, so for now will Plex be able to make a strong start in their first home console appearance?

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Expanding their efforts in the 4K HD industry, Japanese company Sony have done more than most to promote the benefits of the ‘Ultra HD’ format, with their latest development being the upcoming launch of a ‘4K Ultra HD’ media player.

Set to release with 10 ‘optimised films’ (The Amazing Spiderman, Battle: Los Angeles, Bad Teacher, The Karate Kid, The Other Guys, Salt, Total Recall 2012, That’s My Boy, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Taxi Driver) pre-loaded, the ‘Sony FMP-X1 4K Ultra HD’ media player is naturally designed with Ultra HD TV sets in mind (claimed to be Sony’s range only), with the $699.99 device, due for release on 15 July in the USA, set to feature the ability to supply content via the company’s new ‘4K Video Unlimited’ online service.

That content selection will take the form of an online store format, with the movies, TV shows, and ‘short videos’ featured on that service set to provide the hub of the platform, although those downloads (for either 24-hour rental or purchase) will start from the costly prices of $7.99 and $29.99, respectively.

The device is also noted as holding a storage capacity of 2TB for this content (which presumably will include the chance to upload and upscale your own pictures or videos), of which 400GB will be taken by the 10 pre-installed films. Further features include Ethernet, HDMI, USB, and SD additional storage compatibility, hinting at least at a customisable experience compatible with a range of formats.

Meanwhile, in what appears to be the only moderately positive pricing move for the circular product (which will be twice the cost of a 4K-supporting PlayStation 4, out by the end of the year), the FMP-X1 will be discounted by $200 for buyers who can prove ownership of a Sony Bravia 4K set (which the new device is optimised to work with), though those TV sets start at $5,000 themselves. As history has demonstrated with expensive new technologies, perhaps the best advice is to wait it out a few years until 4K HD becomes more mainstream… for now though, nothing is stopping you at marvelling at its potential for free:

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All computers running Windows come equipped with Windows Media Center. There is no reason not to take advantage of the multi-media capabilities of this free program. It works very well out of the box, but by giving it extended functionality- you can turn your computer into a full blown media center. With DVR media center software, already packaged with the media player, it would be a shame to not take advantage of the possibilities this can bring. It only takes a few freeware programs and a capture card that will cost less than $100, to fully appreciate what this program is capable of. All tools needed to record television, play video, and listen to music is already available to you, to create the perfect home theater personal computer.

Capture Card Installation

It’s very easy to record television on from your PC. It will only require the ability to plug in a coax cable into your machine. This will require a simple capture card. A capture card is simply a piece of hardware that will handle all of your video recording once installed; and installation is painless. In most situations, many PCs will already have a capture card installed. But if your machine does not have one, you will need to purchase one. This is a very small obstacle as they are very inexpensive; it is likely to be less than $100. And once it is installed, no further money will need to be spent to have your media center completely set up. Thankfully, capture cards are pretty cheap, especially when compared to other hardware of recording devices.

Installation will mean you will need to open up your PC or have a professional install the capture card for you. But if you wish, it’s also possible to purchase an external USB capture card for a few more dollars. The USB card can simply be plugged in to the USB port; no internal installation is required. In any case, once your card is installed, launch Windows Media Player and it will handle the entire set up process for you. It is very simple; you will only need to follow instructions on your screen.  When you are finished with installation, you are on way to recording television on your PC.  Now it’s time to extend functionality just a bit to be sure your media center will accomplish what is needed.

Extending Your Media Center

Now that your computer is set up for DVR recording, you may be fully aware that your media center is located in your office—which is not very convenient. But these days Xboxes are almost as common as PCs. Most often your Xbox will be sitting in your living room. If your Xbox machine is already connected to your home network, it will take little effort to extend to your Windows Media Center on your PC. Since your Xbox is already integrated into your home theater, extending your Xbox to your PC will turn your home theater system into Windows Media Center running on your Xbox in your living room that is already integrated into your home theater system. The Xbox website has a page that will allow you to download the appropriate software for your Media Center Version.  Follow the simple set up instructions and point your Xbox to your Media Center. The Xbox manufacturers have created Universal media remotes for this purpose. These remotes will cost less than $20. But as I said above, no further purchases are needed; it’s also possible to use the game controls that come with Xbox machines.

Unfortunately, one of the only drawbacks to using Xbox to extend your Media center is the lack of ability to support DivX playback. Sadly, it also does not support playback of other popular codecs that are not MS-video related. Luckily, this can be easily remedied with third party software. A quick download of the free program, called Transcode-360 and you will no longer have trouble with any playback on your Xbox 360 machine.  From Xbox highlight the video to be played, press info on the controller, choose More, and then select Transcode.

Using Plugins

Let’s go one step further before we are finished. The setup is already fully functional and there will be no difficulty with play back or recording, but it’s also possible to add other third party freeware programs to further extend functionality of your media center. There are a number of excellent DVD Ripper software packages that will now allow you to rip DVD images and store them on your hard drive for later viewing. These video files can easily be accessed from your Windows Media Center menu. How cool is that? So you see, it won’t take much at all to have your Media Center completely setup on your PC. With very little effort and very little money, you’ll be up and running in no time at all.

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As physical discs, tapes and analogue TV become extinct, and digital streaming delivery of files becomes more common. Watching a TV show or movie on your PC screen or laptop can be a bit too restrictive. No big screen, usually lower quality sound, having to wait 5 minutes for a boot-up and not conducive to group watching means we need another option. The answer is one of the new breed of internet TV media streaming set-top boxes that deliver digital files onto your big screen TV easier.

Do you need a media streamer?

Introduction

No one can say listening to music hasn’t changed greatly since the invention of MP3 players. In much the same way, our video watching habits can and will change as internet TV boxes continue to impact on the market. In the very near future, gone will be the piles of DVDs we all have stashed in some drawer in our house, all replaced by digital copies. It’s even possible that DVD players, cable receivers, or satellites will turn out to be as un-important as the VHS players we all got rid of a long ago. Every home has some type of set-top box that handles our video watching pastimes. But as delivering media via the internet continues to be developed, the playback of digital video will become as common as MP3s. In fact, a media streamer is very similar to an MP3 player but the media streamer offers playback of video format as well.

Choosing the Right Media Streamer

So what exactly is a media streamer and what does it do? Similar to most electronic devices that have adapted and evolved, media streamers can vary greatly in quality and features provided. Media streamers is a term that appears a lot now and describes a network connected device  that both plays media from a hard drive or home network, and can stream content from the internet. So in general terms, the media you can play, video, music or images are usually stored outside of the media player and the device will play the file from its source wirelessly. So you can stream from online video sites like Hulu, Amazon and Youtube, catch-up TV sites etc. Or you can connect to your home network consisting of a computer, hard drive, tablet, phone, or media server etc.

Media streamers come in different shapes and sizes, but they are generally very small and vary wildly in the features they provide, how well the media streamer you choose accommodates your needs will require you choose the model that has the features you might need. With that in mind, it may be a little confusing at first since media streamers are so new. Like many electronic devices we have all purchased from time to time, the features needed may also vary from one person to the next. But in order to be sure you have a media streamer that will suffice, there are a few requirements to consider.

What to Consider

Connectivity is top priority. This may sound elementary, but without proper connectivity there is little hope of successfully transmitting video files from your streaming device to a television. Most media streamers found on today’s market will include HDMI connectivity. Some models will include component connections and audio connections, and there are now a range of models that enable wireless video streaming, so you can lose the ugly cables.

Support of different file formats is also an extremely important consideration. Since there are so many different video file formats and codecs, it will be important to choose a media streamer that can handle the most popular video formats. This is the best way to ensure your video library will be supported. Additionally, the network support included in your media streamer is also very important. Network support is different from connectivity. Any media streamer worth its weight will provide an Ethernet port to connect to your network. But these days, the better media streamers should also provide a wireless network support to offer users and hands-free operation.

Usability

The media streamer you choose should be easy to use and easy to navigate with an intuitive interface. You can choose a media streamer with all features unimaginable, but that will serve no purpose if finding files you wish to watch is difficult to do. The menus and navigation bars should be user-friendly and perhaps customizable to gain the most from your unit. Your media streamer should offer easy network set up and a remote control unit that responds very easily. There’s nothing more annoying than a remote control that will not change video as needed. You may also wish to choose a media streamer that has support for popular online services. Subscription services such as Netflix and Hulu Plus should be readily available. Your unit should provide content availability for such sites. Availability of on demand subscription movie sites will only further your home entertainment.

Web enabled TVs and Gaming Consoles

At this time, purchasing a media streamer may be either a little expensive or even unnecessary as they are still in the early stages of development. However, there are cheaper alternatives that will offer similar experiences to those which a media streamer can provide. It is still possible to transmit video files stored on your hard drive and view them through your television with alternative sources.

These can be described as media players and software jukeboxes which run on your computer, a connected (smart) TV or many gaming consoles can also transmit video files through your television.  Many gaming consoles come with hard drives for storing multimedia files or offer a means to connect a USB storage device to access your video library. In these situations, the video playback is similar to media streamers and may be an affordable alternative until these units become more readily available and affordable to average users. It’s also likely, these jukeboxes and gaming consoles will continue to evolve and provide improved video streaming capabilities to continue to be competitive as media streamers become more popular.

What’s the best Media Streamer for you?

D-Link Boxee Box

Price around $99

The rather snazzy looking Boxee Box by D-Link has full 1080P hd support and 7.1 audio as well but users complain of a lack of apps that include Netflix, Youtube, Spotify and Vudu. The boxee can stream from the home network, streaming from the web, via the two usb ports, and it has an antenna slot for live cable TV as well (but only free unscrambled ones). It has a cloud based DVR that also disappoints as it has limited coverage and carries a monthly subscription charge.

Roku 2 XS

Price around $79

The Roku XS lets you play digital media from the web, your local network or from the USB/hard drive. Built in WiFi, over 600 channels, can play HD 720p and 1080p, has motion control for games and connects to your TV via a HDMI port. It can stream Netflix, Hulu+, Amazon and Pandora amongst others.

Western Digital WD TV Live Hub

Price around $79 -$160

The WD TV Live Hub comes either with a built in 1Tb hard drive or without so it can double as your media server. But there is a downside in the fact that the WD Live has no wireless connection so has to be connected via an ethernet cable. The device can stream the usual Netflix, Youtube etc. It plays full 1080p HD and can stream from the web or your network files, and can also play casual games.

Apple TV

Price around $94

The Apple TV is an interesting streaming device, it can play files from your iTunes library rather than just standard video files, it can be controlled by any iOS device such as iPad or iPhone and has the Airplay feature which streams wireless movies from your handheld device. It has 1080p playback but you are limited to to rental content from iTunes and streaming from Netflix.

Android TV Boxes and Sticks

Many companies are putting the open source Android operating system on a number of boxes sized similar to the Apple TV, as well as plug-in HDMI sticks that fit into the back of your TV. They are generally cheap and make a great way to turn any HDTV into a smart TV. They can stream movies and shows from the home network as well as having (limited) storage internally which is usually around 4Gb and can be expanded up to 32Gb. Services such as Youtube, Netflix and Hulu etc can be run as well as apps from the Google Playstore and the XBMC media software. Interestingly many people prefer these devices over the official Google TV devices as streaming services are not blocked.

Google Chromecast

Price around $35

A new entry is the cheap thumb sized Google Chromecast stick. This device plugs into the HDMI port on your TV set and lets you stream from any mobile device or computer using a Chrome browser straight to your TV. The device shows great promise and an even better price.

Other media streaming options

Xbox 360

If you have an Xbox360 then you already have a streaming device. The console made by Microsoft can access services such as Amazon Instant Video and Netflix but it is not so easy to connect to a home network.

Playstation 3

Just like the Xbox, the PS3 has access to some streaming services and can play movies if you plug in an external hard drive.

Computer

Most of us own a PC or Mac and it is very easy nowadays to hook it up to the big screen TV and watch content. The computer also has full access to streaming services and catch up TV websites.

Media Software

Install some media software into your computer and you can make filing and running movies, shows and music a breeze. A big favorite is XMBC.

Final Thoughts
The digital age is now firmly upon us, as DVD’s begin to lose popularity, downloadable movies and shows will take over, just like they have with video games. Whatever computer or console you own, you have greater access to streaming and downloadable content. Now is the time to set-up your computer or media player to a home network so you can watch all of this great content at home or on the move. Watch on the big screen then carry on on your tablet when you go to bed or traveling.  Internet TV and video is not the future anymore, it’s here all around us right now. You owe it to yourself to open up this great new, easier, and more convenient world. Once you do, your viewing will never be the same again, and you will never want to go back.

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Alright i agree they could have thought of a better name, but there is no denying that XBMC (short for Xbox media center) is widely regarded as the leading media center software available to organize, play, and arrange all of your media files from a single interface. Originally created for the Xbox console, it has now been ported and runs on pretty much every device created.

XBMC turns your pc into a media center

If your not sure what media center software is or does, imagine all your media files that you run on your ipod, tablet or computer, add your DVD collection and streaming services into the mix, such as Netflix, catch-up TV services etc. and have all those files and services running on your PC and powered by the media software. Now you can hook up your computer or connected device to a big screen TV, a projector, a surround sound amplifier, and play all of those files straight from the media player which will organize and play them for you.

But that’s not all that XBMC does, if you rip a DVD or download a digital copy of a TV show for example the walking dead, and a movie, lets say Marvels the Avengers, XBMC will go to the web find the movie posters and DVD covers, grab the plot and cast details and then present your movies, shows and music in a gorgeous interface for you to play.

Add the fact that XBMC is an open source, free download, runs on a number of operating systems including Windows, Mac, Linux and Xbox, new versions and features are constantly being added, remote apps for iOS and android are available, and there is no excuse not to download it right now.

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