Is there any better method to ring in 2012 than to drop 129 bills on a sparkly new wireless-enabled DVD burner? Absolutely. But when your New Year’s resolution includes archiving smartphone pics to optical media and steaming DVD flicks over WiFi, Samsung is ready to make those nostalgic dreams a reality, with its SE-208BW Smart Media Hub . The idea this is quite familiar — little black box takes content from an attached storage device and streams it to connected devices over WiFi, or over the net. Samsung’s twist at the traditional model brings optical media into the equation, however, with a CD/DVD burner enabling music and film playback, at the side of remote file archival. You have to to attend until late January (or even early February) before introducing Samsung’s shiny streamer in your wired or wireless network, but we got an early examine the recent DLNA-enabled gadget today.
If you’ve used an external DVD burner made within the last decade, you’re already acquainted with the shape-factor employed here — there is a slim disk tray up front, with full-size and mini USB connectors, Ethernet and a DC input at the rear. That is strictly a streaming device, so there is not any HDMI or other AV connectivity — you will want to make use of an Android, iOS or smart TV app, together with Samsung AllShare or an FTP client to access content. We tried steaming 720p video and some photos using the Android app and the AllShare application included with most modern Samsung devices, and everything worked as expected, with content loading quickly with none hiccups.
You could access files on a connected HDD or USB flash drive remotely from the built-in FTP server, but you have to to make use of Samsung’s apps to stream DVDs and music CDs from that built-in optical drive, or to burn smartphone pics or other remote files to a blank disc. You could view content directly to your smartphone or tablet, or on a connected TV, using the previous device to regulate playback. The hub also serves as a web-based bridge, so that you won’t lose web access when connected directly over WiFi. There’s nothing groundbreaking here, unless the absence of an optical drive was keeping you from adding one of these device in your collection, but jump past the break to determine it in action.
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