If you've been putting off that purchase of Popcorn Hour's evolutionary A-110 HD media streamer or all new B-110 motherboard, here's a decent compilation of facts and opinions to help you make up your mind once and for all. The cats over at DigitalReviews took the time to not only detail, test out and report back on the newest duo from the company, but it also revisited the original (and heralded) A-100 in order to give a better comparison. Overall, critics did tend to prefer the A-110 over its predecessor, but the minor list of changes made it a hard sell for folks teetering on upgrading. The B-110 was seen as an even tougher sell, with only the hardcore DIY crowd likely to even find it worth investigating. Nevertheless, we won't spoil the rest for you -- head on down to have a look for yourself.

[Thanks, Anton]

While we can only imagine that the lead time for one of Popcorn Hour's A-110 HD media streamers is at least a week or so judging by the demand of the predecessor, at least one of these things has managed to make its way out. CNET's UK branch was able to wrap their paws around the latest Networked Media Tank, and while they did note that the design was essentially the same, the changes that were made (HDMI 1.3a in particular) were "seriously worthwhile." For a brief preview and a few more shots, check out the read link below.

[Thanks, John]

Well, would you look what just arrived at Engadget HD's headquarters? Yep, that's ZeeVee's localcasting ZvBox, and it has been carefully photographed as it danced right out of its packaging. Head on over to take a look at the gallery -- a full review will be following shortly.

Who knows if Popcorn Hour really is still working on a couple more HD media streamers, but its latest one is definitely up for pre-order. First whispered about a few months back, the $215 A-110 is a revamped A-100 that adds 2.5- / 3.5-inch SATA HDD and USB Slave functionality, HDMI 1.3a support (for full HD audio pass-through) and an optical S/PDIF to replace the coaxial S/PDIF socket. For those of you looking for even more flexibility, you can take a look at the outfit's new B-110 Baseline. This "Home Theater Motherboard" arrives with the media enthusiast in mind, boasting support for HDMI 1.3a, optical / coaxial S/PDIF connectors, four USB 2.0 ports and a mini-ITX form factor. Both pieces should ship out within two to four weeks, but considering just how sticky things were when the A-100 launched, we'd tack on a few weeks to that estimation just in case.

[Thanks, Stephen and Jeff]

Ever since we got our hands on Samsung's Media Center Extender at CES last year, we've wondered how the CE giant's rendition would stack up against the rest. Rather than build the Media Center Extender functionality into a TV the way HP has, or make a completely separate set-top-box like Linksys or D-Link, the $200 MediaLive Media Center Extender is designed to be a companion product for Samsung HDTVs. It can be mounted to the back of certain Samsung sets, and with the help of HDMI-CEC, the TV's remote will control the box even while it's out of sight -- of course, this begs the question of whether or not it will work with other TVs, but we'll just have to wait and try it ourselves when it launches next month. Oh, and in case you don't know already, Media Center Extenders are not just another media streamer, because it will allow you to have the full (almost) Vista Media Center experience -- including the ability to watch live HD from CableCARD tuner -- on any TV (connected wired or wirelessly) in your house.

When Popcorn Hour's Networked Media Tank / A-100 went on sale earlier this year, we didn't really foresee it gaining so much fanfare. Even months after launch the unit still had a waiting list, and just recently has the commotion died down enough so that supply and demand could meet in beautiful harmony. In all honesty, we haven't heard many negative feelings towards this potent little media server, but as these things go, there's always room -- if but a crack -- for improvement. So, what features would you like to see on the A-100 that aren't there currently? Who knows, Popcorn Hour may grant your wishes in one of its potentially forthcoming successors.

This week's Ask Engadget question is a bit on the specific side, but it's one we've heard asked time and time again. Thus, we figured it was time to finally get it out in the open for you readers to debate.

"I have an extensive DVD library that I would like to archive on a network drive and be able to access via my PS3, menus and all. I am currently using TVersity to stream videos from my PC to the console. I've seen walk-throughs for archiving DVDs, but I haven't seen anything that will present these via a DLNA server (to my PS3) with their original menus intact so that you can access special features such as commentary tracks and featurettes. I am not even sure that it is possible to navigate the menus via the PS3 remote. Any recommended solutions out there?"

Can't you just hear the hopelessness in poor Ron's voice? Throw the guy a bone, will ya? And while you're at it, throw our highly sophisticated email sorter a question of your own at ask at engadget dawt com.

Not only is this thing powered by Neuros, it even resembles the Neuros OSD. Announced today at the SINO Consumer Electronics Show, the brashly named WhereverTV acts as a liaison between your internet-connected PC and TV, delivering "hundreds of live international television channels in more than 40 languages from almost 100 countries around the world." The 5- x 5- x 1-inch box must be simultaneously connected to your router and TV, and once the tele is flipped on, you'll be able to browse, manage and stream scads of international TV channels from wherever you are in the world. Granted, we still prefer the flexibility of the ZvBox (which allows you to tap into all facets of internet video, not just one segment), but for just $199.99 with no activation or recurring charges (available now at Amazon), this could be just the thing for foreign television junkies or folks currently living outside of their homeland.

As the release date for ZeeVee's ZvBox draws near (we're hearing July 31st), the company is out and about in an attempt to drum up demand as the run-up to its launch progresses. During CONNECTIONS 2008, ZeeVee was in attendance with a ZvBox on display, and aside from snapping a few telling photographs, the folks over at eHomeUpgrade were also able to capture a couple videos to give you an early feel of its capabilities (and limitations). We don't have to tell you where the goods are, but if you're new here, that read link down there is a good place to start.

[Via SlashGear]

Sigma Designs has been dabbling in wireless HD technologies for eons, so we aren't going to get too excited until we see this here system-on-chip (SoC) actually hit some products that we care about. Still, the CoAir is a fairly sweet concept, wrapping integrated wireless, coax and gigabit Ethernet capabilities into one single chip aimed at whole home networking. Put simply (or as simply as possible), this chip is the world's first to "simultaneously deliver multiple independent streams of video and data over coax cable, Ethernet cable and wirelessly without compromising quality of service and throughput." Based on the WiMedia standard, it can reach speeds of up to 480Mbps with UWB (ultra-wideband) wireless streaming, and room-to-room linkage via UWB-over-coax can peg those same rates. What we have here is a great basis for building a whole home server on, but until said device emerges and performs flawlessly, we'll just smile and carry on.

Believe it or not, Aztech's WL850MS was actually first mentioned way back at CES 2008, but it's just now finding the limelight at CommunicAsia. The well-spec'd unit supports 1080p media streaming over Ethernet or 802.11n WiFi, and you'll likely be thrilled to know that it boasts MIMO antennas for extended coverage and 2.4GHz / 5GHz dual-band capability. You'll also find four 10/100 Ethernet ports for multiple video recipients and a pretty swank enclosure, if we may say so ourselves. Word from Singapore has the unit retailing for around $263, but there's no telling how long we'll have to wait before seeing it on US soil.

Yeah, you may be burning that midnight oil, but your weariness isn't the reason you're certain you've seen this thing before. Touted at CES as the MediaSmart Receiver, the re-dubbed MediaSmart Connect is finally available for pre-order. Just as we heard before, this unit takes full advantage of Extender for Windows Media Center technology, and although it possesses no internal storage space, it will pull in digital media from around your home (and a variety of online media outlets) and pipe it straight to your HDTV. The unit plays nice with other UPnP- and DLNA-compliant devices and includes 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, an Ethernet port, HDMI / component jacks and support for MPEG2/4, DivX, XviD, WMV, MP3, WMA, AAC, JPEG and BMP files (among others). Prospective buyers can get their order in today for $349.

AMD's second generation FireStream 9250 just broke the single-precision teraflop barrier at the International Supercomputing Conference in Germany. The proc takes advantage of AMD's GPU expertise to augment the processing power of your rig's CPU with an additional 8-gigaflops per watt of processing from this 150 watt processor. A 55x performance bump, say developers, when compared to crunching financial analysis code, for example, on a CPU alone. The 9250 Stream fits into a single PCI slot and includes double-precision floating point hardware performing at more than 200 gigaflops. The processor and supporting SDK are due for release in Q3 for $999.

Update: According to TGDaily, the 9250 features ATI's upcoming RV770 GPU at its core -- the foundation of future 4800-series graphics cards. So 4x cards setup in Crossfire X should be capable of offering your next gaming rig an additional 5 Teraflops or power. You know, in theory.

Read -- press release
Read -- TGDaily

In the quickly-growing realm of media streamers, there's at least a modicum of a chance that Conceptronic's oddly titled Grab 'n GO Full HD media player has slipped from the forefront of your mind. If so, the outfit is gunning to jar your memory by announcing that it is now shipping said piece to eager consumers. The release also noted that SAMBA and NFS clients have been added, and it's pretty much ready to "stream all digital media files to a TV in Full HD 1080p resolution." Furthermore, you'll find a gigabit Ethernet jack to handle all that data, and the built-in USB port enables external storage to be added locally. Sorry, still no price.

[Thanks, KJ]