Philips Streamium

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Philips Streamium

While not directly PVR-related, I think this may be of interest.

Philips has launched their new entertainment platform, Streamium (cheesy name!)

Streamium currently consists of 4 products - a wireless music jukebox, a wireless multimedia box (essentially using your TV as a monitor for your digital media), a wireless media platform (sort of like aspects of Tivo's Home Media Option, but you still need a PC) and the Philips Media Manager (Windows only) software. It is an impressive debut and I look forward to reviews.

That said, there are a lot of little "features" that I worry about.

- You must share your photos online with Yahoo! Photos. However, that feature should be configurable to a few different photo sharing platforms, not locked to just one.

- Why are they pushing Music Match? Does their software not handle the music management functionality?

- There is the "My.Philips account" which enables the user to manage/organize your media via a browser.

- Can you configure the unit to go to non-sanctioned Internet radio or Internet film sites? Customers want that kind of flexibility.

With respect to DRM, Streamium supports MPEG4 and DiVX, but it isn't clear what DRM they may or may not have and what other formats it supports. Suffice it to say that there are many other formats that would be required for the average user.

If anyone has seen/used this hardware or the Philips Media Manager software, please let us know your thoughts.

by Gen Kanai August 5, 2004 in Products

Comments

I have the MC250 shelf system - it is the wired version, not the wireless version. I've enjoyed this component for an office stereo for some time now. I'll answer a few of your questions that are relavent to the mc250.

Why are they pushing Music Match? Does their software not handle the music management functionality? - On my mc250, they use a modified version of MM to serve up music from the pc. very stable and does what i need it to do.

Can you configure the unit to go to non-sanctioned Internet radio or Internet film sites? - Yes, I've been able to add a ton of different radio stations that are broadcast through streamcast. works perfectly and sounds way better than through the computer speakers. not sure if the video player will let you do the same.

overall, i've been very happy. only think i wish it was in a smaller form factor that would be more portable.

Posted by: chris at Aug 5, 2004 8:43:22 AM

also, forgot to mention that since it is built on UPnP standards you can use 3rd party media servers that will connect the streamium to your PC. I've got the Twonkyvision server running on Linux that serves up audio to the streamium flawlessly. Also, there is a beta class UPnP server called Allegro Media Server that serves up music from the itunes library on your PC. I'm not an ipod guy but i'm sure many of you would appreciate a media server that will do this.

Posted by: chris at Aug 5, 2004 9:00:40 AM

Perhaps Austin was just a local test market, but this stuff has been available here for at least a year. Including huge billboards and a ton of print advertising. Your announcement that it was just released confuses me.

Posted by: Scott Johnson at Aug 5, 2004 5:41:59 PM

They have a community at http://www.streamiumcafe.com/. Most questions I see here are addressed there. I have their multimedia hub, the SLi400, and love it. Their UPnP server is called Philips Media Manager; the devices support any type of mp3 stream and many file formats on your pc. It's an evolving space, but very cool. Like all roads to the future, there's a little cheese along the way.

Posted by: d.martin at Aug 10, 2004 4:43:50 PM

I have had the 250 for quite a while and use it on my desk while I work for MP3 files (yes I have a few), I just got an sl300 (router sized) and so I can play video files & picture slide shows on my TV - the PMM software (UPnP) works with both the 300 and the 250(not UPnP) - so I got rid of MusicMatch (except for custom stations- platnium account 10 bucks a month) I also use the my streams (from my.philips.com) to put in MP3 urls - mostly NPR stations. I have DivX 5 and XVID, and some MPEG 2 files on my PC and they play well enough on the 300 so I don't use my mod Xbox for a player anymore - just gaming. One limit (annoying) any DivX 5 file above 1.4 MBPS encoding gets some frame skips and some freezes - always clears up, only a few of my files have this problem (hi encoding rate) on MPEG 2 it handles all my files up to 6 MBPS encoding and plays them well. I think they will do software upgrades (automatic) like they have done on the 250 - this would be sweet to dial in the 300 - as for DRM - I haven't seen anything in the 300 or the PMM about it - but none of my content is tainted this way - one more thing, I use wired on the 300 and wireless on the 250 - the distance effect on video streaming is really noticeable - so if you can run a cat5 its worth it - cheers from another WiFi cafe with too much coffee in my system.. or this would have been shorter...nate

Posted by: nate a. at Aug 11, 2004 2:24:31 AM

"Streamium (chessy name!)" Not as chessy as PVRblog... or TiVo???

Posted by: Koninkljike Philips N.V. at Jun 9, 2005 8:28:18 PM

http://www.jokerbean.com

Posted by: JokerBean at Nov 9, 2005 2:14:06 PM

Philips Streamium

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