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HP X280N MediaSmart Connect | 
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| Brand: Hewlett-Packard
Category: CE
List Price: $349.99
Buy New: $281.88
You Save: $68.11 (19%)
New (12) from $281.88
Avg. Customer Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 949
Media: Electronics
Shipping Weight (lbs): 7.4
Dimensions (in): 10.7 x 9.6 x 4.9
MPN: X280N
Model: X280N
UPC: 883585612741
EAN: 0883585612741
ASIN: B001AHLODY
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Play Your Music/ Photos/ and Video From Any Windows Based PC in Your House On Your HDTV | | • | Direct Access to OnLine Media Services | | • | Integrated Windows Media Center Extender Functionality | | • | HP Pocket Media Drive bay/ Built In Wired and Wireless Networking/ IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n | | • | HDMI/ Component Video/ and Digital Audio Outputs/ Media Playback From USB Based Portable Storage Media |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
HP MediaSmart Connect x280n Exceed your expectations for home entertainment. Add our MediaSmart Connect to your HDTV And get ready to stream photos, music, and videos from your PC network to your TV. You'll also get direct access to on-line services, plus thousands of movies and millions of songs.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 The Best Streamer September 3, 2008
How I wrote my review:
Timing for this review: After one month of Daily use of the HPx280n
Background: I did not read any other review of this product. I'm trying to be the most objective I can.
Previous experience with other streamers: I will try to compare my Experience with HPx280n to my experience with my other streamer: Netgear EVA8000 (I have used the EVA8000 for more than one year . You also can read my review about that device in Amazon.com).
Everything that is stated in the box that this device can do is true (not the same with the EVA8000).
It's important for you to consider at least 2 things :
1)The HP software is great but, for the best experience with this device you must have Windows Vista with WMC in your PC and..
2)If you are planning to stream HD content, try to get the most Speed an Band Width from your Internet Provider (I had to upgrade to Cable Internet) and go wired.
I remember when I made my review for EVA8000. All the cons I found to that device are not present in HPx280n. In fact both products can't be compared:
You can record your TV shows trough your PC and watch it on your TV.
You can watch Internet TV.
You can be connected to an UNPN server like ORB.
You can play the "new" Dvr-ms video format from Microsoft.
You will buy a product totally stable.
You can expect from your HPx280n to be the Center Unit of your Home Entertainment System
To make it simple: this product is excellent. Good bye, EVA8000.
 Needs a little fine tuning September 2, 2008
This is my fourth extender. I also own three of the Linksys DMA2100 extenders.
The HP model is nicely constructed. It installed very nicely as a media extender without installing the HP software.
I highly recommend NOT installing the HP software. It made a mess of things on my test machine, and frequently caused the MCE to hang.
Using it as a straight media extender seems to work as expected. Picture quality is nice. The remote control is better than the Linksys boxes. It also boots much faster than the Linksys.
On the down side, I have had several problems with non WMV files. Specifically, lots of videos on the internet (Geek Brief, Videographer, Buzz Outloud) videos that work fine with the Linksys have no audio or sometimes no video with the HP unit. Haven't been able to work out what is going on there.
Another issue is the unit detects when your TV is turned on, and appears to automatically turn itself on. While not that critical, it will leave itself on after turning the TV off.
The HP specific download content is expensive and not very well stocked. I really wish the unit was able to download RSS feeds directly. As of yet, there is no other use for the built in hard drive for me.
Its a good enough unit, but expensive. I have it 3 stars mostly for the buggy playback of some video, plus a waste of a hard drive unless you wish to pay a lot for premium content from HP. Since the unit is nearly twice the price of the Linksys, I would recommend the Linksys DMA2100 instead.
 Poor HP Support August 31, 2008
I purchased the HP MediaSmart Connect X280n soon after they were released for market in early August. The unit setup in about 30 minutes as advertised. The unit integrated into my home network without a hitch. The jpeg files played flawlessly on my HD TV. The colors and resolution were superb; the best quality photos that I have been able to produce on a TV. However, I could not play the music or video files on the unit and they were the file format that is advertised as being supported. Whenever I attempted to play the files it would produce an error that the file format was not supported. I even attempted to play the on board demo files and even they produced the same error message on the music / video files. The photo files played okay.
I contacted HP though their email supports and received a reply from a Charlie that knew less about the product than I did. After about 3 emails I gave up and decided to try the 800 number for technical support. After being on hold for a long period of time I was connected to Representative Sam. He didn't even know anything about the product and passed me on to Helen who was pleasant but admitted that she wasn't familiar with the product but would find someone that is. I finally talked with Emanuel that had some knowledge of the product but really no technical expertise. He asked a few questions about the problem and then put me on hold while he researched the problem. After being put on hold numerous times he finally said he need to do more research and would call me back a 7 PM. He then called back at 7:30 PM and said that he still needed to do additional research and would call me back the next day at 5 PM. That call never came and I'm still waiting.
HP Does It Again! August 20, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Kudos to HP for the addition of the X280N Media Smart Connect to it's terrific line of home media products. The MediaSmart Connect is an extender for UPnP devices and Windows Media Server-equipped PCs. I've already got the excellent EX470 MediaSmart Home Server, jacked up to 2 terabytes of storage (and rapidly filling). The two work perfectly together and make for a very powerful combination.
Setup couldn't be easier, or more user friendly. It works across our 802.11n network flawlessly and I haven't yet seen the need to hard-wire it in. It easily found each of our systems (mostly Vista, some XP), including the MediaSmart Home Server. Speaking of which, as I've said we're filling it up and have already surpassed 1 terabyte. The MediaSmart Connect works so well that we're burning our entire music CD collection to it, adding home videos, and have already moved all of our online photos to it. Storing any of this in any other form has become unthinkable because viewing it in any other form is out-dated.
There are some things to consider:
1) video formats and their various associated codecs are a pain in the neck - not because of HP but because of uneven and/or proprietary standards across the Internet. When you receive (or make) videos, they could have been created by any number of means and there is no guarantee they'll play on anything, MediaSmart Connect included. You'll need to learn about these things - so don't blame issues on HP.
2) Organizing your media - be it photos, music, or videos, becomes important for ease-of-use. The best way to remedy this is to use descriptive names for your file directories, and make them hierarchical. Naming a directory "summer vacation photos" becomes obsolete with after next years vacation - use "2008 summer vacation photos" instead. I include the date in each directory of photos or videos in the form "YYYY.MM.DD" so that the directories sort in date order and so that I can quickly find what I'm looking for.
3) Your performance will vary across some home wireless systems. We're using 802.11n and that is working very well - response time in the MediaSmart Connect menus is excellent. It does take no more than a few seconds to load up large videos... and this is a bit faster than it would be using one of the older networks. You may want to setup an ethernet connection directly to the box. We're going to move the cable modem, MediaSmart Connect, MediaSmart Home Server, and Linksys WRT600n router all into the same case in our media room. And when it comes tro photo directories, showing photos in their original form of a couple of megs or more will perform poorly. So while we are storing all of our digital photos on our home server, I have put the original full-size images (or raw files) in their own directory, and use VSO Image Resizer to create a directory or much smaller images for viewing purposes. This only takes a few minutes, and it allows me to quickly moves guests thru large volumes of digital images with minimal delay.
4) You may want to rethink where you store your images, music, and video. Before we did this, we had them split all over several PCs. Now we're consolidating them all to the home server, and eliminating them from individual PCs. This makes it easier for everyone to find them, cuts down on needless duplication, and makes maintaining them easier. The home server also backs them all up to a single central location.
All in all, no exceptions, a great product!
Very glad I bought it August 14, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Summary: It was easy to set up and provides plenty of great content that wouldn't otherwise be available in my living room.
I wasn't sure how well MediaSmart would work, but it has exceeded my expectations. That's not to say it's perfect, but I am glad I have it. Overall, it was easy to set up. A couple kinks were soon resolved with online help. It's very quick to navigate some content, but other areas have delays mentioned by another reviewer. I am using a wired connection which might be a few seconds quicker. In some aspects, MediaSmart is quicker than my cable company's Tivo-like device and MediaSmart also displays 14 days of television programming versus 3-7 days.
I can set recordings for television programs, play a slideshow of photos on my television when having people over, listen to iTunes and watch Podcasts (after converting file formats), etc. It appears any audio or video that MediaSmart pulls from the Internet or that will play in a Microsoft format can be displayed through my television. (Not everything viewed on the internet can also be viewed through MediaSmart.) YouTube is planned to become available. Renting movies from MovieLink was simple. The main downside is that HD and Dolby 5.1 content is a little scarce so far, though I'm sure more will come soon. Overall, this technology is in the early stages, but already extremely promising. It's great today and I look forward to watching as it only gets better.
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