Digital media receiver
Encyclopedia
A digital media receiver (DMR), also commonly referred to as a media extender, media streamer, digital media hub, or digital media adapter (DMA), is a home entertainment device that can connect to a home network
Home network
A home network or home area network is a residential local area network . It is used for communication between digital devices typically deployed in the home, usually a small number of personal computers and accessories, such as printers and mobile computing devices...

 to retrieve digital media
Digital media
Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital form. It can refer to the technical aspect of storage and transmission Digital media is a form of electronic media where data is stored in digital (as opposed to analog) form. It can refer to the technical aspect of...

 files (such as music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

, pictures, or video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...

) from a personal computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...

 or other networked media server
Media Server
A media server refers either to a dedicated computer appliance or to a specialized application software, ranging from an enterprise class machine providing video on demand, to, more commonly, a small personal computer or NAS for the home, dedicated for storing various digital media .-Purpose:By...

 and play them back on a home theater
Home cinema
Home cinema, also commonly called home theater, are home entertainment set-ups that seek to reproduce a movie theater experience and mood with the help of video and audio equipment in a private home....

 system or TV. The DLNA organization refers to these devices as digital media renderers (DMR).

Functionality and capability

A digital media receiver can connect to the home network using either a wireless (IEEE 802.11a, b, g, and n) or wired (Ethernet) connection. A DMR includes a user interface that allows users to navigate through their digital media library, search for, and play back media files. Different DMRs are designed to handle different tasks. Some DMRs only handle music; some handle music and pictures; some handle music, pictures, and video; while others go further to allow internet browsing or controlling Live TV from a PC with a TV tuner.

Some other capabilities which are accomplished by DMRs include:
  • Watch, pause, & record live television
    Television
    Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

  • Play and store music CDs and view album art
  • Play, catalog, and store DVD
    DVD
    A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

     videos
  • Listen & Pause Digital Radio
    Digital radio
    Digital radio has several meanings:1. Today the most common meaning is digital radio broadcasting technologies, such as the digital audio broadcasting system, also known as Eureka 147. In these systems, the analog audio signal is digitized into zeros and ones, compressed using formats such as...

  • View digital pictures (one by one or as picture slideshow
    Slideshow
    A slide show is a display of a series of chosen information or pictures, done for artistic or instructional purposes. Slide shows are conducted by a presenter using an apparatus, such as a carousel slide projector, an overhead projector or in more recent years, a computer running presentation...

    s)

Hardware

Some DMRs have integrated displays and speakers
Loudspeaker
A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...

. Others must be connected to an external output device, such as a television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

, or a stereo system. While there are stand-alone digital media receivers such as the Apple TV, the NetGear EVA700 and EVA8000, it is not unusual to find the DMR functionality integrated in other consumer-electronic appliances, such as gaming machines (for example, PlayStation 3
PlayStation 3
The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

 and Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

), DVD players, set-top boxes, or even connected HDTVs (such as HP MediaSmart Connect and MediaSmart TV).

History

By the fall of 2000, work had been pursued on an audio-only receiver by a company called SimpleDevices, which was awarded two patents covering this invention in 2006. Developed under the SimpleFi name by Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...

 in late 2001, the design was based on a Cirrus Arm-7 processor and the wireless HomeRF
HomeRF
HomeRF was a wireless networking specification for home devices to be connected to each other. It was developed in 1998 by the HomeRF Working Group, a consortium of mobile wireless companies that included Proxim Wireless, Siemens, Motorola, Philips and more than 100 other companies...

 networking standard which pre-dated 802.11b in the residential markets. Other early market entrants in 2001 included the Turtle Beach AudioTron
AudioTron
The Turtle Beach AudioTron AT-100 and AT-101 are 1U rack-mountable, hi-fi network music players. An AudioTron can stream digital music files from personal computers or NAS devices without the need to install server software on these storage devices since the AudioTron is based on Windows CE and is...

 ethernet receiver and the Rio Receiver
Rio Receiver
The Rio Receiver was a home stereo device for playing MP3 files stored on your computer's hard drive over an Ethernet or HomePNA network. It was later rebranded and sold as the Dell Digital Audio Receiver....

 phone line networking receiver.

An early version of a video-capable DMR was presented by F.C. Jeng et al. in the International Conf. on Consumer Electronics in 2002. It included a network interface card, a media processor for audio and video decoding, an analog video encoder (for video playback to a TV), an audio digital to analog converter for audio playback, and an infrared receiver for remote-control-interface.

The concept of a digital media receiver was also introduced by Intel in 2002 at the Intel Developer Forum as part of their “Extended Wireless PC Initiative." Intel’s DMR was based on an Xscale PXA210 processor and supported 802.11b wireless networking. Intel was among the first to use the Linux embedded OS and UPnP technology for its receiver. Networked audio and DVD players were among the first consumer devices to integrate DMR functionality. Examples include the Philips Streamium
Streamium
Streamium is a line of IP-enabled entertainment products by Dutch electronics multi-national Philips Consumer Electronics. Streamium products allow users to consume digital entertainment and multimedia content—whether stored on their desktop computers or delivered through Internet-based services—on...

-range of products that allowed for remote streaming of audio, the GoVideo D2730 Networked DVD player which integrated DVD playback with the capability to stream Rhapsody audio from your PC, and the Buffalo LinkTheater which combined a DVD player with a DMR. More recently, the Xbox360 gaming console from Microsoft was among the first gaming devices that integrated a DMR. With the Xbox360, Microsoft also introduced the concept of a Windows Media Center Extender
Windows Media Center Extender
Windows Media Center Extenders are devices that are configured to connect via a Network link to a computer running Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows Vista Home Premium/Ultimate or Windows 7 Home Premium or higher to stream the computer's media center functions to the Extender device...

, which allows you to access the Media center capabilities of your PC remotely, through your home network. More recently, Linksys, D-Link, and HP introduced the latest generation of DMRs that support HD video playback and may integrate both Windows Extender and traditional DMR functionality.

Streaming and Communication protocols

While early DMRs used proprietary communication protocols to interface with media servers, today most DMRs use standard-based protocols based on UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) and DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance). DLNA-compliant DMRs and Media Servers guarantee a minimum set of functionality and proper interoperability among DMRs and servers regardless of the manufacturer.

Connections

There are two ways to connect an extender to its central media center
Home theater PC
A Home Theater PC or Media Center appliance is a convergence device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that supports video, photo, music playback, and sometimes video recording functionality...

 or HTPC server - wired, or wireless.

Wired

Ideal for performance, wired CAT-5 or other Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....

 connections allow transmission of video and sound up to whatever limit the routing device used can handle. Using a wired connection, minimal or no congestion will be experienced as a result of bandwidth limitations. However, this method may require substantial work to connect if no cables are already available within the home, usually involving drilling new holes and fishing wire. Alternatively, one may wish to use a wireless connection, as described below.

Wireless

Ideal for convenience, a wireless connection can be established between the media extender and its central media center. On the downside, interference may cause a "less than optimal" connection and cause network congestion, resulting in stuttering sound, missing frames from video, and other anomalies. It is recommended that an 802.11a or better be used, and over as short of a distance as possible.

Other Names

Digital Media Receiver manufacturers use a variety of names to describe their devices. Alternative names include:
  • Connected DVD
    DVD
    A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

  • Digital audio receiver (DAR)
  • Digital media adapter
  • Digital media connect
  • Digital media hub
  • Digital media player
  • Digital media streamer
  • Digital video receiver
  • HDD media player
  • Network media player
  • Networked DVD
  • Networked entertainment gateway
  • Wireless Media Adapters
  • Media Extender

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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