Sony will be releasing a new model of their RoomLink network media player in February, and as a Vaio owner, I'm ready to invest in o­ne.

But as with the previous RoomLink, non-Vaio owners are completely out of the picture.

Way to go Mac OS there, Sony.

Sony will release the "RoomLink (VGP-MR100)" network media player that supports playback of 1080i o­n February 5th. It is Open Price, and the estimated retail price is around 25,000 yen.

This is a network media player capable of playing audio and video files stored o­n a VAIO. It supports the playback of MPEG-1/2 video and MP3 audio files, et. al, o­n a VAIO. With the new inclusion of Sigma Designs' "EM8602L" media processor, it now supports 720p/1080i playback. Likewise, it can output MPEG-2 HD (720p/1080i) video. Because of this, the RoomLink can now playback HDV files recorded by Sony's HDV camera, the "HDR-FX1."

mu-Linux is used as an OS. VAIO Media 4.1 is the supported server software. Video files supported are MPEG-1/2, WMV, and DivX; supported audio files are ATRAC3/ATRAC3plus, WAVE, MP3, and WMA. Still images formats supported are JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, and BMP.

This new RoomLink is schedule to support the "Home Network Device Interoperability Guidelines v.1.0" as decided by the DLNA, or Digital Living Network Alliance. Operation with Digi-On's "DiXiM" and other DLNA supporting servers has been confirmed.

Apart from a 100BASE-TX Ethernet port, it also includes IEEE 802.11b/g wireless LAN functionality. It has D3, S-Video, Composite, Optical Digital Audio, and Analog Audio output ports, and includes an infrared remote controller. The power consumption is 15W (6W when idle). The external dimensions are 215 x 145.5 x 33.5mm (W x D x H), and it weighs about 800g.



Inspired by:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20050105/sony.htm

Product Information:
http://www.ecat.sony.co.jp/vaio/acc/acc.cfm?pd=19898