Couch potatoes have never had it so good
Don't let the funny name fool you. The new Streamium MX6000i may be as good as it gets for advanced home entertainment systems. It is one of Philips' first lines of consumer electronics products designed to take advantage of residential wireless broadband internet connections.
The name comes from its ability to handle so-called 'streaming' digital audio, video and movies from the Web.
The internet-enabled MX6000i is built with a wireless local area network connection, based on the 802.11g standard, for fast access to multimedia content from online entertainment services or connected personal computers.
Consumers have the choice of connecting the MX6000i to cable or asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) broadband services - either via a wireless network router or a wired Ethernet connection. ADSL is technology used by service providers like PCCW to transmit digital information at a high bandwidth on existing telephone lines.
The MX6000i is supplied with PC-link software that allows users to gather movies, pictures and music from the hard disks of networked PCs. This allows for easy access to a consumer's library of MP3 audio, JPEG images and MPEG video.
Hooked up to a widescreen television, the MX6000i can offer consumers all that multimedia content in the comfort of their living rooms with the added benefit of a dedicated audio-visual system.
The MX6000i includes a five-tray DVD player with Dolby Digital-standard receiver; Cinema Center-brand speaker with five multi-directional speaker drivers; Philips' ClearVoice dialogue enhancement technology; six integrated 75-watt audio amplifiers on the sub speaker columns; and four satellite speakers.
A wide variety of online music content is available from Philips partners such as MP3.com, MusicMatch and live365.com, as well as Radio Free Virgin, Playhouse Radio and Andante.
The MX6000i enables music files to be played back with their meta-data - ID3 tag information, including title, artist and album - on the audio system's five-line display or as an on-screen display shown on the TV.
To guard against obsolescence and changing standards, the MX6000i can be easily upgraded via the internet to add new services and features, such as online games and access to Web-based photo albums.
Philips Streamium MX6000i DVD home entertainment system
Specifications
Price: Not available
Pros: No cables to clutter up this stylish internet audio-video-movie player/recorder
Cons: Asia release no sooner than the second quarter of next year
