An HD media player and streamer adds another layer of convenience to your home entertainment system. If you are tired of having to connect your laptop to your television every time, then maybe you should start giving this media player some thought.
iXtreamer is one such media player and streamer that is a worthy addition to your home theater setup, one that is easy to install, affordable, and plays almost any media format that you can think of from multiple sources. It can connect to ipad, iphone, ipod and it is not just limited to apple products.
Although the iXtreamer’s design is minimalistic and compact, a stunning design is not what it sets out to achieve. In essence, the iXtreamer is a black and silver plastic box with a sliding panel on the top to accommodate your iDevice, and connectivity inputs in the rear.
The iXtreamer comes to the fore once powered on. It is a very flexible multimedia player that sits on your network, connects to your PC, and streams media to any networked or AV device via AV, USB and LAN connectivity options.The video performance is quite phenomenal.
The iXtreamer does not have a hard drive included, but it is possible to fit a 3.5 inch SATA hard drive with storage capacities of upto a mammoth 3TB, meaning you have lots of space to play with. You can also play media by connecting a USB stick, or your home network by using a wired network connection. An optional extra is a Wi-Fi USB antenna kit, so you can stream media wirelessly using your home Wi-Fi.
f you own an iDevice, the iXtreamer can also be used as a dock to access photos, video and music stored on your Apple hardware. The iXtreamer also supports streaming media via the internet, with YouTube proving particularly useful. Further, the iXtreamer also allows composite and component audio/video inputs, and optical/coaxial digital audio outputs.
The iXtreamer runs on a customised version of Andriod OS, and the user interface is simple and easy to get used to via the bundled remote control. Navigating through the menu can be a pain. HDD is necessary for xtreaming. The upside of the iXtreamer is definitely its ability to play almost media format you can think of including, but not limited to, MPEG-1/-2/-4, VOB, MKV, FLV, XviD, MP3, WAV, WMA, and FLAC. The iXtreamer’s firmware is also regularly upgraded to add more media formats and applications. For that home theater experience, the iXtreamer supports DTS and Dolby decoding, so you can enjoy your movies in full surround sound.
Yantrick’s Verdict: Retailing for around the NPR 20K mark and available in most of the tech shops that litter Kathmandu, the iXtreamer is an affordable way to stream your home media on your HDTV.