Verbatim MediaStation Pro media streamer review

Simple streaming solution?

23 September 2008 14:00 GMT / By Stephen Patrick

So, you have an increasing amount of media files on your PC and want to share them around the house – the best way to do this is with a dedicated multimedia hard drive.

Consisting of a 500GB hard drive that Verbatim claims is large enough to store up to 4000 hours of MP4 video, 6300 hours of MP3 music and 250,000 5-megapixel photos, it’s great value for the price.

The design is simple and once hooked up to your TV the shiny black plastic doesn’t look out of place. Connectivity is varied but we were surprised by the neat and compact array of ports on the back of the unit.

The MediaStation has HDMI for hooking up to Full HD TVs, while there are Composite and S-Video connections for standard connections that support 1080i. For the PC user, there are two USB ports and an Ethernet connection for adding to your PC. The main selling point for this device is the addition of 802.11g, so you can add it to your router and stream media to connected PCs around the house.

Once connected, there is a reasonably straightforward interface to use. It allows you to simply access the contents of the hard drive or to set-up shared folders and manage your media files easier. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find support for internet radio as well as transferring data via FTP sites.

Verdict

Format support is an evolving option and firmware upgrades will be made available via the website. In the meantime, you’ll find it supports the average formats, including DiVX, MPEG4, MP3, WMA, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, BMP and JPEG files.

The Verbatim MediaStation Pro is a versatile media box that we found easy to set-up and run, with the hardest part finding enough files to fill it.

Score

Review Recap

Made by: Verbatim
Price as reviewed: £210
The good: Neat design, simple interface, plenty of storage
The bad: Pricey
Quick verdict: If you're looking to stream media around your home, this is the most effective solution we've seen yet – plenty of storage and easy to use
Score