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When i first started testing and reviewing hardware media players roughly 5 year ago Plasma and LCD screens were quite simple (just taking their first steps actually) without the plethora of features one can find now even at mid-end, low cost models. Amongst those features are built in hardware media players which i was surprised to see that they are not that bad in reproducing Full HD 1080p media content with quite good image quality. Of course as always the key players/manufacturers in the industry keep introducing new features so they can make their products more appealing to consumers but we always need to remember that one of their main goals is always to reduce the cost of their products (to increase profit) and so one can never really compare one of these low cost internal hardware media players with a retail model like the XIOS DS Media Play! by Pivos which we have here with us today since the differences in specs are quite honestly somewhat vast.
Ever sat around and wondered what it would be like to have your smartphone or tablet connected to your TV? Pivos delivers exactly that in a tiny attractive package.
If you've ever visited technology trade shows like Gadget Show Live, the Consumer Electronics Show and so on, then you will always hear that "Smart TVs" are the way of the future. Smart TVs are internet connected, can download, organise and play your favourite media content from the internet, can integrate your social media life into your entertainment and offer a wide variety of apps to do things that "normal" TVs wouldn't normally be able to do.
However, if you've stayed connected to what's going on with the latest gadgets then you will know that Smart TVs aren't catching on as fast as most people might like, and as a result the prices are still high. That is where today's product, the XIOS DS Media Play! from Pivos, comes in. The XIOS DS unit from Pivos bridges the gap between your standard HDMI TV to the much more expensive "Smart TV" without requiring that you buy a new TV. In its simplest form it can be described as an Android Media Player but it does bring support for the open source media player application XBMC, although XBMC is still only in Beta for this product despite this being out since early 2012.
Being a budget orientated Android Media player the Pivos XIOS DS isn't going to bring any super high end features to the table, that we would expect to find on expensive tablets and smartphones, but it should prove capable of playing music, video clips, films and doing other light tasks that will help turn your TV into a Smart TV.
So without any further ado let us proceed through this review.
We live in a word where media is at our fingertips, we can instantly stream and watch content with ease. With that many different media players have emerged to make this process much easier, especially in a living room setting. Today we are taking a look at not only a media player, but a full on Android box. Pivos says the XIOS is “The marriage between digital home entertainment and the powerful Android platform” and it really is. You can use it as a media player, you can download games to play on it, you can also use it to be productive. The options are really endless as there are so many applications available for the Android operating system. Read on as we take a look…
The Xios DS is a small, but well optimized Android Media Player that can run XBMC in good conditions and features enough ports in order to plug in multiple storage devices or wired/wireless keyboards and mice. With the player we also get a simple remote for navigating through the menus.
We have reviewed a number of media players in the past, from the Boxee Box to the Dune HD Smart H1 unit. The decision on which player is right for your home is never simple, given the wide array of options available to consumers and depending on their price points and needs. We hope our Media Player Comparison Guide has helped in the past and today the Pivos AIOS HD Media Center is up for an in-depth review to see how it performs. The AIOS HD Media Center is the new-found company’s only product offering, and like others, it aims to replace your need for a full, home theater PC (HTPC) with its affordable, smaller package.
So far 2012 is the only year inside which I’ve seen so many manufacturers release and announce both network/hdd media players and HTPC solutions which brings about the question which is the best solution for people. Honestly that's not something one can answer mainly because each of us has a different set of needs and requirements so whereas some people just want to watch a movie in which case a network/hdd media player would be the obvious choice others may want to also play games, surf the web, use social sites and a lot more so an HTPC would be a far more suitable solution. Personally i like to have several different devices each ment for a different purpose so naturally I’ll always prefer an good network/hdd media player and an desktop system over an single HTPC (unless of course i couldn't afford both). Today however we will be testing one of the entry-level media players in the market, the aios HD media center by Pivos Technology Group.
This past weekend we had the pleasure of attending Pittco’s Iron Storm XIII Lan Party! This 42 hour day event hosted about 150 gamers and started April 20 and concluded on April 22nd. They had official tournaments for Counter-Strike: Source, League of Legends, Starcraft II, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Halo Reach and many more. Besides just the tournaments there was quite a lot of gaming going on as well as other fun. Read on to see what the event was all about!
The decline of music sales is a trend that's showing no end in sight. The UK experienced a 6% drop in overall sales during 2011, and it should come as a surprise to no one that the blame is going straight to piracy. Given other recent trends, however, I feel there are many other (legal) reasons why this trend continues.
For the last five years we've banged the NAS drum for their DLNA capabilities. Today we look at DLNA from the other end of the spectrum.
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