CES: No Shortage of Ways to Store, Play Media at Home

LAS VEGAS -- Amid the dazzling array of new audio and video products being introduced at CES 2006 this week, networking vendors are rolling out more advanced gear for distributing entertainment content around a home via Wi-Fi.

Today, D-Link Systems and Cisco Systems' Linksys division introduced competing media server platforms containing integrated 802.11g Wi-Fi access points, though each vendor took a different approach. Linksys also unveiled a "virtual sound card" for sending PC-based music to an audio system, and Marvell Technology Group announced a family of chips for use in consumer networked storage devices.

Details of the Differences

While D-Link integrated a hard drive and a card reader into its DSM-5210R D-Link Wireless HD Media Server (model DSM-5210R), Linksys designed its Wireless-G Media Storage Link Router with Speed Booster (model WRTSL54GS) to accept external devices via USB. Cisco's home and small-business networking unit wanted to concentrate on what it does best and also keep the price low, according to company spokesperson Karen Sohl. The Linksys product, available now, has an estimated street price of $130, while the D-Link platform will cost $300 when it ships in the first quarter of this year.

The D-Link Wireless HD Media Server is designed to hold multimedia content and serve it to devices throughout a home; those devices, in turn, are hooked up to consumer electronics products such as TVs and audio systems. The Media Server--which stands 1.5 inches high and has a 17-inch-wide black aluminum frame and a translucent "smoked glass" front panel--is intended to fit right in with a rack of consumer audiovisual gear. Users control it via a remote control, using a display that pops up on an attached TV, according to D-Link spokesperson Michael Scott.

The device has its own 100GB hard drive for storage. In addition, it can serve content that resides on a PC and is sent via USB or a wired or wireless LAN. External hard drives can be connected via USB, and a five-in-one media card reader is included in the unit.

Universal Plug and Play

Content that the device serves can be sent to networked media adapters in D-Link's MediaLounge line and to any others that support the UPnP AV (Universal Plug and Play Audiovisual) standard. In addition to handling audio and standard-definition video, the platform can serve high-definition video streams at resolutions of up to 1080i--the 1080-line interlaced format used in high-definition television.

The server works with the Windows Media Video 9 format as well as with MPEG2 and MPEG4 video at resolutions of up to 1080i, according to D-Link. It can also serve audio content from services including Live365.com, Napster, Radio@AOL.com, and Rhapsody. It doesn't work with Apple's iTunes because of licensing costs for Apple's DRM (digital rights management) format, Scott said, but it does support other media formats, including XviD and Ogg Vorbis.

For its part, the Linksys media server doesn't include a hard drive or a media card reader, but it has a USB port for attaching an external drive or card reader, Sohl said. The integrated access point supports Linksys's SpeedBooster technology, which, when used with other SpeedBooster gear, can deliver more than 4 megabits per second of real throughput--higher than a typical 802.11g network can manage--she said. It can serve media to a PC or to any adapter device that supports the UPnP standard.

Other Announcements

Linksys also introduced the Wireless-G Music Bridge (model WMB54G), a Wi-Fi client device that can receive music from a PC via 802.11g and send it to a home audio system on traditional audio cables or via an optical digital connector. Unlike some other digital audio adapters, the Music Bridge can receive and play any audio--in any format--that could be played through the PC's own speakers, according to Linksys. Sohl described it as behaving like an external sound card. Linksys software accompanying the Music Bridge lets users choose what audio from the PC to send to the device and play over the audio system. For example, you can elect to send music but not instant-message alert tones. Music Bridge supports home-theater 5.1-channel audio, Sohl said.

Meanwhile, Marvell introduced a family of processors designed to sit at the heart of home networked storage devices, giving everyone in a home instant access to multimedia content on a centralized storage platform with guaranteed quality of service, according to the vendor.

The Orion product line consists of chips and software that users can modify to meet a system vendor's needs, said spokesperson Diane Vanasse. The products will work in stand-alone home storage appliances, in storage devices integrated into platforms such as Wi-Fi access points, and in service-provider broadband devices, according to Marvell.

Several partner companies are showing off reference designs based on Orion at CES, and consumer products at a range of prices should hit the market this year, Vanasse said.

For more CES coverage, head to PC World's CES InfoCenter.