Ever Wish Pinnacle Would Put Out A PC/Mac Compatible Media Receiver?

• November 14th, 2007 | General

If you’ve ever asked yourself the above question you should rejoice because the Media Receiver Gods have smiled upon you–a PC and Mac compatible media receiver is just what Pinnacle is releasing into the wilds. Just what exactly is this set-top box capable of doing? Well, it receives media, but more on that in a moment.
First off, what can’t it do? Reading the press release for the Pinnacle ShowCenter 250HD, one wonders why recording isn’t mentioned as a feature. It turns out that they weren’t kidding when they called it a “media receiver.” This is definitely not a PVR. It comes from the Apple TV school of thought and connects to all of your hard drives over a LAN, either through ethernet or wifi, and allows you to stream all sorts of video to your TV. So, once again, to be clear, this box does not record. However, there are quite a few things it can play.

The ShowCenter rounds up all the usual suspects like Windows Media 9, Windows Media DRM, MPEG-1, 2, and 4 (AVI), DivX and XviD, and it can handle High-Def, outputting a 1080i signal. Sound-wise it can handle mp3, WMA, WMA Pro, WMA-DRM, WMA-lossless and of course, that old favorite, WAV.
In the output department, the ShowCenter 250HD can do composite (duh), component, S-Video. It has a stereo audio output and 2 digital audio outputs (one coaxial and the other optical). There’s also a USB port in the front of the thing so you can easy connect a thumb drive or larger-capacity external drive to the box. It prices in at just under $200 and you can read more about it at Engadget or check out Pinnacle’s press release for the ShowCenter 250 yourself.