It claims to support external drives, although there could be caveats (speed, etc.)
Hopefully the streaming would negate that to a certain extent, wouldn't it?

I've had great results playing stuff from my network drive on my modest notebook, but admittedly it is mostly .mp3 or lower res .avi files.
I am also still filling in gaps in my knowledge in this area, so please excuse any ignorance I might be displaying on the subject.

I love stuff like this however!
Although it's a little lacking in the range of outputs, it would be a pleasure to have an excuse to adjust! :D

So, not having yet recorded HDTV onto a digital anything, can someone out there be so kind as to tell me how big the file of a hour long tv show is?

Call me skeptical but there seems to be some things missing from this device beyond those stated.
1) How is it supposed to support external drives without a direct connection such as usb, you wouldn't be able to stream anything close to high def with an .11g connection.
2) Seems like they are removing anyone without a newer tv by only having the hdmi connection, especially when they have an S/PDIF connector for the audio.

Seems like you'd be better off with something like a dvixbox or mediagate that can handle whatever drive you put in them and whatever format file you'd like to play. IMHO

It's plastic, not "brushed aluminum" - that's clear as daylight from the photos.

Without showing the software running this thing, it's just a hunk of useless plastic. I can show you 20 such devices by the end of the month - that includes making 13 of them myself.

Vapourware...

It's quite funny looking. Im curious to see how good this turns out. I have yet to buy one of these products, mainly due to the limitations of quality output by the Apple TV.

I'd love to see a good product come out for this that wont look too bad on a Bravia 46" and up.

"So, not having yet recorded HDTV onto a digital anything, can someone out there be so kind as to tell me how big the file of a hour long tv show is?"

For a MPEG2 TS in 1080i its about 100MB/min.

Lack of outputs would make this a failure in the real world.

Philips, can you please talk to the xbmc guys and have xbmc as your software for you device? If you thing can handle 1080p xvid, I'll buy it.

So photoshopped, it's not even funny.

The real world does not have a whole lot of #FFFFFF in it.

I have my doubts that "A/V out" is actually an HDMI port. The shape seems slightly off and why would they label it "A/V Out" instead of HDMI? Unless you have some spec sheet from Philips to prove otherwise, I'd assume that its some kind of breakout port that supports multiple types of connections (ie. composite, component, etc.).

"can someone out there be so kind as to tell me how big the file of a hour long tv show is?"

Most of the true HD files for one hour TV shows I've seen are around 1 gig, but they are ususally .mkv files instead of .avi.

I like the media servers like mediagate a lot better. Mine has a 300Gb HDD, can stream from other computers over my home network, and plays almost any file type you can through at it.

I think Ub3rg33k is right. I think this is a port for an RCA like the PS2, not an HDMI port. So this thing probably only really suits televisions with the good ol' fashion red yellow and white connectors and have no component or HDMI.

This thing looks like a bargain basement ripoff, an ugly one at that. If it's Philips, no doubt the interface is ugly too.

Simple and straightforward is this answer to AppleTV, a plain metal box with a single HDMI connector, optical audio port and USB hookup. On the front, a mysterious slot, obviously too small for optical media, perhaps conceals an IR sensor.