What To Consider When Choosing a Media Streaming Device

By looking at the media streaming device it may appear that it has Wi-Fi capabilities accompanied with the ability to stream Netflix and Pandora so you assume you are all set. If these are the only features you are after then that's great and by all means make the purchase. My only regret would be that there probably is a media streaming device out there at the same price point that will offer more features. Therefore media streaming devices are capable of doing much more than Netflix, YouTube, and Pandora. Three aspects that I will cover in detail are supported media file formats the device can read, importance of USB ports, and automatic media categorization.The biggest challenge used to be finding a media streaming device outside your PC that offered the ability to play your entire media collection. Now consumers have many options to choose from allowing a multitude of selections. For this example I will compare both the Boxee Box and Roku supported media file formats. With both the Roku and Boxee Box offering a great selection of application and the ability to stream Netflix, there is still a huge gap with the number of supported media file formats built in. The Roku offers only 3 supported media file formats versus the Boxee Box at 21. This is a huge gap in supported media file formats and if you have a personal media collection there is a high chance the Roku cannot meet your needs. One more notable point is these supported media file formats cannot be updated. As nice it would be like it is on your PC going to a website and installing a file, these devices do not have this ability. Both Boxee Box and Roku are excellent products, but at the same point it is up to you to decide which is a better fit for your home media center.

Most devices these days offer USB 2.0 ports that will work just fine for any home media collection. Something to keep in mind is the number of USB ports that the product offers. When I first started my media collection, before the invention of NAS devices, I used to keep movies and music on just about any storage device I could find then plug it into my computer. If you are new to the hobby you would probably look at eight terabyte NAS and say that's crazy I could never fill that up. Well... Let me just say you may get there sooner than later. So getting back to my original point you probably will purchase an external hard drive to begin your collection. If you have only one USB port you will find yourself spending countless hours transferring data to a larger drive when it fills up. With a second or third USB port you can just plug in another hard drive without interruption. The obvious answer is to purchase a NAS device with expandable bays, but this is a costly expense and if you are just getting your feet wet with the hobby this option might not be realistic.Something Boxee and XBMC have done extremely well is the ability to categorize your media collection. Below is a bank of info on the subject http://www.mathgames-online.com/profile/fine39start.