Live from IFA 2005 in Berlin: Philips launches Media Center
Philips has announced the launch its first ever Media Center PC at the IFA technology show in Berlin – and it claims it has better video playback than any of its rivals
Throughout today Stuff will be reporting live from the IFA gadget show in Berlin
Philips has announced the launch its first ever Media Center PC at the IFA technology show in Berlin – and it claims it has better video playback than any of its rivals.
The Philips Showline Media Center MCP 9350 sports a 3GHz Pentium 4 processor and 250GB hard drive for recording videos and storing your music and photo collections. As well as the standard Media Center features – the ability to pause and record live TV, and playback content to screens anywhere around your house – the Showline also boasts imporoved Natural Motion video playback.
Another technology specific to Philip’s Media Center is LikeMusic, a technology that analyses the song you’re currently listening to and suggests similar-sounding tracks to follow. Best best of all – in our humble opinion – is the living room-friendly enclosure that will enable you to have a computer under your TV without anyone noticing. The MCP 9350 will be available later this year and will cost around €1500 (£1000) without screen.
Well connected
Another part of Philips’ Connected Planet range of wireless products is the Wireless Music Center, a hard drive-based music server that will rip up to 750 albums from CD and serve them to up to 5 client units around the house. It’s not a new idea, but at €1000 (£650) for the server and one client, it’s significantly cheaper than many rivals. It’s also designed to be plug-and-play – so even those of us without a degree in wireless networking should be able to set them up. Phew.
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Dan Grabham
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