INTEL CANMORE TV chips were announced a long time ago, but given their embedded nature, they are hard to find in the wild. Today, Gigabyte changed that with the introduction of the GN-MD300L.
Can I haz more?
Intel is getting into the ‘smart’ TV business, oxymoron though it may be, and this is one of the first boxes you can buy to smarten up your boob tube. The box itself is small, powder blue, pretty small at 200mm * 200mm * 38mm, and should come without the massive Intel logo on top. Intel PR will probably send you one if you ask them nicely though.
The device will do 1080p over HDMI 1.3 cables, but also 720p with component video out. You can add optional Wi-Fi if you don’t want to run wires to the growing server rack beside your monitor, but we would suggest that you plug it in if you are going to try playing anything related to HD content. Shared media doesn’t cut it for uninterrupted streaming 1080p content.
The two things that stand out are Blu-Ray support and Samba support. The Blu-Ray part means that the chip and box is fully DRM infected, but Samba says it is running Linux. Interesting combo there. In any case, this could make a dandy home media server as long as you don’t want it to also be a PC.
It will be interesting to see what other services Canmore boxes can bring to the concept of TV watching. Will it be more open and fun, or force DRM infections on unwary purchasers? Will it make the boob tube a more thought provoking interactive boob tube 2.0, or just boob tube 1.0 plus ads? Can Canmore make this jaded hack start watching TV again after 10 years away?
No. But the tech is neat.S|A
Charlie Demerjian
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