Moneual's 972 Home Media Server hearts Blu-ray

by Darren Murph, posted Nov 14th 2007 at 9:34AM

The last time we heard from Moneual, it was showing off a funky fresh tubular HTPC at CEDIA, but now it seems the firm is putting its poker face back on for the thoroughly traditional 972 Home Media Server. This rig rocks a tried and true flat black chassis, built-in display (at least it sure looks like one), a minimalist feel and a built-in Blu-ray writer to boot. 'Course, you'll find all the usual media PC amenities here including PVR functionality, but mum's the word on actual hardware configurations. Keep it locked for more just as soon as we find out.

Filed under: Blu-ray, Media PCs, Others

Tags: 972, blu-ray, htpc, media center pc, media pc, media server, MediaCenterPc, MediaPc, MediaServer, Moneual

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

John B @ Nov 14th 2007 9:46AM

Cue the childish "Go Blu! HD DUD sux0rz!" diatribes in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

Highest Ranked

Anthony K @ Nov 14th 2007 10:55AM

Here you go John B.... Go Blu!!!! HD DUD and you SUX! - Just to add something new to the tag line :)

Neutral

John B @ Nov 14th 2007 11:27AM

Sweet! I didn't have to wait too long AND you even expanded on it! :)

Neutral

EGo @ Nov 14th 2007 11:11AM

Has anyone owned a NiveusMedia HTPC?
http://niveusmedia.com/products/mediacenters.htm
They claim to provide TrueHD bitstream via HDMI.

Can anyone confirm it?
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/10/08/powerdvd_ultra_audio_downsampling_explained/1

Neutral

D@n @ Nov 14th 2007 11:53AM

@John B

...and started the whole talkback off with a childish diatribe of your own

Well done, very grown up

Neutral

John B @ Nov 14th 2007 2:46PM

Actually, I wish we had more specs on it. It's on even hinted at on Moneual's site. I'm guessing 1 TB hard drives and BD being the biggest changes. My biggest issue with these kinds of units is just the cost when compared to an HTPC that you can build yourself with parts from NewEgg (sans the built-in touchscreen).

Not trolling here -- I'm genuinely curious. Is there any real benefit to this kind of unit over an HTPC that you can build yourself, or is this more for convenience (since you don't have to build it yourself) and a couple of bell and whistles, like the touchscreen?

Neutral

joe @ Nov 14th 2007 2:50PM

Dan-
This isn't the place to come for grown up talk. This is the place to watch HD-DVD supporters congratulate themselves and give each other high fives.

Neutral

Anthony K @ Nov 14th 2007 3:56PM

Actually Joe I am a True Blu-ray man. I was just trying to be nice for once to the underachievers in the HD-DUD area.

Neutral

JeffDM @ Nov 14th 2007 3:07PM

Would be nice with managed copy, too bad that managed copy doesn't exist for anything in actual practice.

Neutral

joe @ Nov 14th 2007 4:01PM

JeffDM-

I forgot about Managed Copy. That was one of the talking points that HD-DVD put in the spec early on that had me on their side. I think it got included in the BD spec at some point.

If HD-DVD,or BD, for that matter wanted to be truly consumer friendly managed copy would be implemented.

For those who don't know what it is Managed copy is a way of copying a movie to a hard drive or other device with a certain DRM placed in the file. This is good for both the content producers and consumers. For the consumer it allows you to make a limited number of copies of a disk or what ever use you want. For the content producers it keeps the content protected from unlimited copying. This would allow them to turn companies like foxsoft inside out legally since they now provide a way for fair usage.

This is one of the original reasons that the Ethernet port was required for all HD-DVD devices, so the managed copy could be verified.

Highly Ranked

EGo @ Nov 14th 2007 4:15PM

@ John B

"Is there any real benefit to this kind of unit over an HTPC that you can build yourself"

IMHO Only if they can provide HD audio which supposedly no HTPC does so far. Otherwise I'd just buy an HP Pavilion Slimline s3200t. $900 - $1000 (sans monitor) you get a PC that plays both BD and HD DVD.

Highly Ranked

John B @ Nov 14th 2007 4:39PM

Wow! You're not kidding! Just for the hell of it, I customized a nicely loaded S3200T with BD/HDDVD, Pentium E2180, 2 GB RAM, 256 MB 8500GT, 7.1 channel audio, and 500 GB HD for $1,240. That's also more than sufficient to be a good gaming PC. Granted, they don't say anything of real value about the 7.1 channel audio except that it's an add-on card, but I'm not enough of an audiophile to really worry about whether it's HD audio or a high-bitrate DD audio.

That's not to say that the Moneual 972 doesn't have a place or a market. If someone wants to buy it, hey, more power to them. (Let's face facts -- we've ALL purchased something like this even though there were cheaper alternatives.) But without more detailed specs or pricing it's not a fair comparison.

Still ... thanks for the PC suggestion. I'm going to have to look into that some more because my new 47" LCD TV has a PC input in the back.

Neutral

SirMIXalot @ Nov 14th 2007 10:42PM

In the world of HTPC's, the Moneual is at an attractive price point. If anything, I think they did an impecable job with the packaging on this unit. It looks like somethink you'd see made by the likes of Rotel or NAD (high end audio equipment).

So, to those that would like to build one yourself... You can buy the case from them and do it.

http://www.monshopper.com/shop/moncaso-932b-p-62.html

I just think I'd want more memory for the price and I'm curious about how quiet those fans are in a listening/viewing area. For these reasons, I might look closer at NiveusMedia with thier heat pipe and passive cooling technologies.

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