Xtreamer

Last updated

Xtreamer was a brand of home digital media player and HTPC (Home Theater PC) products. The product line's goal is to replace traditional video players in homes (such as DVD players) with more versatile, but still affordable, players. These players are capable of playing large collections of digital media - movies, music, and photos. The digital files can be streamed (fetched when needed) to the player from the local network (or the Internet), hence the name of the brand. The company has since shut down.

Contents

Products

Xtreamer brand products are sold throughout the world by online sellers, and in some countries also in certain physical stores. However, the product is absent from most electronics stores - a move which the company claims helps reduce the products' prices.

Xtreamer Sidewinder, Xtreamer Pro, and Xtreamer DVD are three configurations of Xtreamer's original media player. All three can play media (movies, music and photos) from a local wired or wireless network, or from an attached USB device. The main difference between the three are in the physical dimensions of the device, and an additional internal storage option: The small and fan-less Sidewinder has room for one 2.5" internal hard disk; The bigger and fan-cooled Pro has room for two 3.5" hard disks, and the DVD has a DVD drive.

Xtreamer Sidewinder 2 and Xtreamer Prodigy are Xtreamer's second generation products. Both are fan-less (like the original Sidewinder); Both add built-in Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3, a general Web Browser and can connect to a USB keyboard or mouse making it easier to use this browser. The Sidewinder 2 has room for a 2.5" internal hard disk (up to 1 TB), while the Prodigy has room for a 3.5" disk, up to 3 TB. The Prodigy has two additional features: It supports 3D video, and it will be Xtreamer's first product to use Android in addition to Xtreamer's own user interface.

Xtreamer Ultra and "Xtreamer Ultra 2" are a settop computers based on Nvidia graphics and Intel Atom processors which comes pre-installed with OpenELEC and XBMC media center software for Home Theater PC pre-installed. The first-generation Xtreamer Ultra uses Nvidia Ion chipset with a 1.80 GHz Dual-Core Intel Atom D525 CPU, while the Xtreamer Ultra 2 uses discrete GeForce GT 520M graphics with a 2.13 GHz Dual-Core Intel Atom D2700 CPU. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Xtreamer Wonder and Xtreamer Prodigy4K released in 2015 are Android based media players with HEVC hardware decoding. [5] The Prodigy4K also supports 3D Videos and UHDTV resolution. [6]

eTRAYz is a NAS enclosure, i.e., a device that contains hard disks and serves their content on the local network, to be played by other streamers.

Customer Support Concerns

Although Xtreamer offers a variety of products on its online store, many concerns about its poor customer support were expressed during the years. The company is known for its ignoring of customers who needed support after buying a product [7] and deleting complaint messages from its forums or Facebook page. Many unhappy clients expressed their disappointment from the service of Xtreamer, both of its main site or local retailers. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

See also

Related Research Articles

SystemRescue Linux distribution

SystemRescue is a Linux distribution for x86 64 and x86 computers. The primary purpose of SystemRescue is to repair unbootable or otherwise damaged computer systems after a system crash. SystemRescue is not intended to be used as a permanent operating system. It runs from a Live CD, a USB flash drive or any type of hard drive. It was designed by a team led by François Dupoux, and is based on Arch Linux since version 6.0. Starting with version 6.0, it has systemd as its init system.

PCLinuxOS Linux distribution

PCLinuxOS, often shortened to PCLOS, is an x86-64 Linux distribution, with KDE Plasma Desktop, MATE and XFCE as its default user interfaces. It is a primarily free software operating system for personal computers aimed at ease of use. It is considered a rolling release.

Kodi (software) Free software media player

Kodi is a free and open-source media player software application developed by the XBMC Foundation, a non-profit technology consortium. Kodi is available for multiple operating systems and hardware platforms, with a software 10-foot user interface for use with televisions and remote controls. It allows users to play and view most streaming media, such as videos, music, podcasts, and videos from the Internet, as well as all common digital media files from local and network storage media.

Home theater PC PC meant to be used in a home theater setting

A home theater PC (HTPC) or media center computer is a convergent device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that focuses on video, photo, audio playback, and sometimes video recording functionality. Since the mid-2000s, other types of consumer electronics, including game consoles and dedicated media devices, have crossed over to manage video and music content, such as the PlayStation 3 and the Apple TV. The term "media center" also refers to specialized application software designed to run on standard personal computers.

Puppy Linux is an operating system and family of light-weight Linux distributions that focus on ease of use and minimal memory footprint. The entire system can be run from random-access memory (RAM) with current versions generally taking up about 600 MB (64-bit), 300 MB (32-bit), allowing the boot medium to be removed after the operating system has started. Applications such as AbiWord, Gnumeric and MPlayer are included, along with a choice of lightweight web browsers and a utility for downloading other packages. The distribution was originally developed by Barry Kauler and other members of the community, until Kauler retired in 2013. The tool Woof can build a Puppy Linux distribution from the binary packages of other Linux distributions.

QEMU Free virtualization and emulation software

QEMU is a free and open-source emulator. It emulates the machine's processor through dynamic binary translation and provides a set of different hardware and device models for the machine, enabling it to run a variety of guest operating systems. It can interoperate with Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) to run virtual machines at near-native speed. QEMU can also do emulation for user-level processes, allowing applications compiled for one architecture to run on another.

Neuros Technology was a Chicago, Illinois–based company that produced a number of audio and video devices under the brand name Neuros. Founded by Joe Born in 2001 as a division of Digital Innovations, it previously operated under the name Neuros Audio. Like Digital Innovations, Neuros distinguished itself by its use of open-innovation and crowdsourcing techniques to bring products to market, as well as by its prominent use of open-source software and open-source hardware. In its development model, end users were involved throughout the product development process from reviewing initial concepts to beta testing initial product releases.

SageTV Software for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux

SageTV Media Center, now open source, was a proprietary, commercial DVR and HTPC software for Mac OS X, Windows and Linux. It requires that the host computer have a hardware-based TV tuner card. The SageTV software has an integrated Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) that is updated via the Internet. The program provides a television interface for DVR, music, and photos on Windows and Linux. SageTV Media Center typically records in standard MPEG2, making it possible to transfer recordings to laptops or other devices. It also has a built-in conversion feature to transcode files into other formats compatible with iPod, PSP, cell phones and other portable devices.

GeeXboX

GeeXboX is a free Linux distribution providing a media center software suite for personal computers. GeeXboX 2.0 and later uses XBMC for media playback and is implemented as Live USB and Live CD options. As such, the system does not need to be permanently installed to a hard drive, as most modern operating systems would. Instead, the computer can be booted with the GeeXboX CD when media playback is desired. It is based on the Debian distribution of Linux.

VirtualBox Open-source x86 virtualization application

Oracle VM VirtualBox is a type-2 hypervisor for x86 virtualization developed by Oracle Corporation.

Element OS was a Linux operating system that was intended for Home theater PC computers. It was discontinued in 2011.

Android-x86 Unofficial port of the Android mobile operating system

Android-x86 is an open source project that makes an unofficial porting of the Android mobile operating system developed by the Open Handset Alliance to run on devices powered by x86 processors, rather than RISC-based ARM chips.

Pulse-Eight

Pulse-Eight Limited (Pulse-Eight) is a hardware designer and manufacturer based in the United Kingdom producing consumer electronics for the home entertainment and custom install industry.

Lenovo’s line of Essential desktops is a collection of budget-conscious machines designed for consumers, and advertised as being "affordable, space saving, and energy efficient". The Essential desktop line is different from both Lenovo’s ThinkCentre line and Lenovo’s IdeaCentre line. Lenovo defines its ThinkCentre desktops as business-oriented computers, while the IdeaCentre desktops are meant primarily for entertainment. The Essential range of desktops can be categorized as being between the two – meant more for ordinary everyday use.

CuBox Nettop computer

CuBox and CuBox-i are series of small and fanless nettop-class computers manufactured by the Israeli company SolidRun Ltd. They are all cube-shaped and sized at approximately 2 × 2 × 2 inches and weigh 91 grams. CuBox was first announced in December 2011 and began shipping in January 2012, initially being marketed as a cheap open-source developer platform for embedded systems.

Arctic (company) Computer cooling component manufacturer

Arctic GmbH, formerly known as Arctic Cooling, is a Swiss-founded manufacturer of computer cooling components, mainly CPU and graphics card coolers, case fans and thermal compound. Since 2010, Arctic expanded its business by starting a range of products to cater other consumer demands beyond that of computer cooling hardware. Nowadays, Arctic also offers various consumer products—spanning audio, home entertainment and computer peripherals. In 2012, Arctic was nominated as one of the finalists in the annual PCR Awards.

OpenELEC is a discontinued Linux distribution designed for home theater PCs and based on the Kodi media player.

MX Linux Operating system

MX Linux is a Linux distribution based on Debian stable and using core antiX components, with additional software created or packaged by the MX community. The development of MX Linux is a collaborative effort between the antiX and former MEPIS communities. The MX 'name' comes from the M for MEPIS and the X from antiX - an acknowledgment of their roots. The community's stated goal is to produce "a family of operating systems that are designed to combine elegant and efficient desktops with high stability and solid performance".

References

  1. "XBMC-based embedded Linux distro debuts on HTPC mini-PC". Archived from the original on November 28, 2011. Retrieved November 20, 2011. XBMC-based embedded Linux distro debuts on HTPC mini-PC
  2. https://archive.today/20130127213637/http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/OpenELEC-and-Xtreamer-Ultra/ XBMC-based embedded Linux distro debuts on HTPC mini-PC
  3. https://www.engadget.com/2011/03/01/xtreamer-ultra-htpc-hands-on-and-prodigy-eyes-on/ Xtreamer Ultra HTPC hands-on -- and Prodigy eyes-on
  4. http://www.xtreamer.net/2012/xtreamer-ultra2.html Xtreamer ultra 2
  5. "Property at Nolin Lake Ky for Sale".
  6. "Property at Nolin Lake Ky for Sale".
  7. http://forums.cnet.com/7723-7596_102-628356/xtreamer-beaware-of-them/?tag=StickyWin_1413054668701;createThreadPopup Case about ignored RMA status
  8. https://www.avforums.com/threads/the-xtreamer-customer-support-thread.1123171/ The xtreamer customer support thread
  9. http://www.hifivision.com/dealer-feedback-review/21752-warning-careful-while-buying-xtreamer-india.html Be careful of Xtreamer India
  10. https://www.avforums.com/threads/warning-to-potential-xtreamer-customers.1111211/ Warning to potential xtreamer customers
  11. http://www.carsforum.co.il/vb/showthread.php?544604-Xtreamer-%D7%90%D7%96%D7%94%D7%A8%D7%94-%D7%95%D7%A2%D7%96%D7%A8%D7%94 Warnings about Xtreamer, Israel
  12. http://www.mpcclub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24044 Invitation to discuss "hot" Xtreamer issue