[1117]

I was looking for a substitute to having a complete pc as my source, and was intrigued by other options such as network servers, etc...

But I wasn't satisfied.

However, I just found out about multimedia drives. Basically, it is a hard drive with some firmware on it that reads all your media in it, and all you must do is connect it to a tv to use its interface.

This is EXACTLY what I have been looking for and wanted to build using an mp3 player, but didn't know how to go about doing it.

Google "multimedia hard drive" and you will get various results. I happen to like the one from Western Digital. Here are two links of it:

Western Digital does its version of Apple TV | Crave, the gadget blog - CNET

Western Digital US Online Store Product Information

What do you guys think? The convenience of a pc without all the unnecesarry OS stuff, it supports FLAC (first multimedia drive I find that supports it) and I avoid the hefty price of dedicated sources. I simply hook this up to my Trends, feed that to my Monarchy DAC, then to my Singlepower... BAM! Awesomeness achieved!

To me, this is the future I'm headed!

EDIT: AHHH! Nevermind, the USB do not seem to do audio output... hmm, the search continues... I know I saw one that did it, now I have to go and find it again. I think it was from Iomega, but the interface seemed rudimentary...

 

[1117]

Ok, a little more quick research shows that the Western Digital outputs through HDMI or component connections, whereas Iomega's Screenplay outputs in HDMI, component, and another model through S/PDIF.

Lacie also has one of their own:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/26/l...ia-hard-drive/

The only problem I see with these units so far is the output options. The Lacie seems to provide optical output though, so that is a big plus.

The other problem is FLAC support. Seems that what oen gadget has, the other is missing! The followin gLacie product seems to have everything I want except for FLAC support (which WD has, but WD does not have all the output options the LaCie has):

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11002

 

[1117]

One more:

Celrun TV: The Premium HD Multimedia Player : Akihabara News .com

 

[boozcool]

Hi,
I had the same question about 2 years ago, and was looking for an external hard drive that doubles as a multimedia player with outputs that can go to a TV. The primary reason was to reduce the clutter of DVDs, and provide a much more convenient and simplified way to browse my AV collection.
So I found TVix (Home). It was a life changing experience (sorta), and today they have much more advanced technology that utilizes HDMI and WiFi. HIGHLY recommended, definitely check it out