Product Reviews

After broadband internet, media streaming has become the second biggest technology for the networked home. It started with audio devices, but the market has moved on to video since Microsoft led the way with its Media Center technology. The Xbox 360, which is launched later this year, will include media streaming, bringing the concept firmly to the mass market.

In the meantime there are an increasing number of media-streaming devices available. All are capable of displaying the video, audio and photo files from your PC on your living-room TV.

The LVD-2010 is very similar to the Buffalo LinkTheatre we reviewed in What's New, Shopper July 2005. It is a combined media-streaming device and DVD player, which is a useful combination for those with little space below their TV.

The setup menus look the same as the Buffalo device's. We installed the provided server software and the LVD-2010

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had no problem finding it. An external bridge is provided for a wireless network, but you must connect this to your wired network first to set up the network address and security.

Once the network is set up, you can start streaming files to it. Video quality is good, but the device lacks support for WMV and high-definition video files. It does support XviD, MPEG1 (VCD) and MPEG2 files, however. You can also play DVDs without any problem and the quality is passable, easily matching budget DVD players. Video outputs consist of component (with progressive scan option), composite, S-video and RGB SCART.

Audio files are well supported, with MP3, OGG, WMA and WAV files all played at good quality through either phono stereo outputs or optical connections. There is also photo support for all the file types you could want. It did a surprisingly good job of scaling down our hi-resolution test photos to display them on a 720x576 resolution TV. Unfortunately, the LVD-2010 also lacks the USB port the Buffalo provides for easy photo viewing.

The menus look fine and are straightforward to use. They move slowly from one folder to the next, but this is common for streaming devices. Sadly there is no HD support in the menus, so you are stuck with low-resolution text and thumbnails.

Compared with Pinnacle's ShowCenter 200, we found Lite-On's LVD-2010 lacking. The ShowCenter's Media Connect and WMV support with HD capabilities, along with its compact size, win it for us.