CinemaTube – affordable 1080p HD media player and much more

Almost a month ago, Zinnet introduced their CinemaTube, the next generation product, which will shake things up in the high-definition media player and streamer market this fall. The CinemaTube is a USB hard drive-based high-definition media player that can also stream users’ entertainment collection from a PC to a TV. It also does what the CinemaCube was known for – PC-free torrent download. Unlike its predecessor, the CinemaTube is a 1080p Full HD media player/streamer with embedded YouTube XL (YouTube for TV).

“We design our products for the modern lifestyle,” says Robert Lo, Chief Operating Officer of ZINNET. “For example, those who are hosting a movie night, a cocktail party or organizing a slide show for a wedding will appreciate that they can now edit their own playlist. You don’t have to insert DVD after DVD on movie night, hire a DJ for your cocktail party or pay for photo slide show production at your events. The CinemaTube can handle all that,” Lo said.

It is streaming various types of media from external hard drives you attach. You can also stream media content from your computer to the TV. In order to enjoy in full-HD entertainment, a wired connection is recommended (built-in wired connection and an Ethernet cable is included). The CinemaTube has wireless networking capability with an additional USB WiFi dongle which is sold separately, meant for non-HD streaming only.

CinemaTube supports multiple audio output formats, including MPEG I Layer 1,2,3(2-CH), MPEG II Layer 1,2 (Multi-Channel), LPCM, ADPCM, FLAC, AAC, WAV, WMA and OGG, RA, Dolby Digital AC3 and DTS. DTS (downmix) is supported by CinemaTube so you do not need additional DTS receivers to enjoy HD videos with DTS tracks. It also supports ISO files, so you can navigate the DVD menu and watch your video as if there was a regular DVD. Photo formats it supports are HD JPEG, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP and TIFF. Subtitles formats it supports are SRT, SMI, SUB, SSA and IDX+Sub.

If you’re thinking green it also saves energy because it uses much less than a PC does. It uses only 10 watts of electricity when downloading, while your PC takes 100 watts just to turn it on. When it’s idle it uses 5/6 watt, when it plays 1080p mkv it uses 6 watt, and unlike other similar products it uses 0 watt when it is in standby mode.

Torrent downloading with the CinemaTube is very easy. All you need is to save your favorite torrents to the USB storage device (ONLY NTFS and EXT-3 formats are supported in this feature) and then let the CinemaTube do the heavy lifting of downloading and free your computer up.

Lo added, “Now there are more reasons to say goodbye to your cable subscription. The CinemaTube is compatible with UPnP devices, so if you install third-party applications such as PlayOn or Tversity on your computer and connect the computer and the CinemaTube to the same network, the device sends Hulu, CBS, ESPN and CNN straight to your TV.”

The list of supported formats and features grow. The guys from brite-View are releasing new firmware versions, thus solving the problems the users of this great product report. The product is on a special offer until October the 5th, so grab it while you can.