TVSquad

D-Link has sent out review units of the DSM-330 HD Media Player, which will be the first commercially available set top box based on the DivX Connected platform. Bloggers Dave Zatz and Brent Evans have already unboxed their toys media extenders and posted some initial impressions.

The DSM-330 is basically a media extender device that does many of the same things as an Apple TV or Xbox 360. You connect the box to your television and your home network via Ethernet or WiFi (802.11g) and you can stream videos from your computer to your TV screen.

The unit can handle videos with resolutions of up to 720p and has an HDMI port. The included software lets you access music, movies, photos, and online media. And DivX is encouraging third parties to develop applications that will run on the box, so you could see new software from independent coders or from big names like Amazon or CinemaNow in the future (I'm not trying to start rumors here. I have no evidence that either company is working on software, I'm just saying it's possible).

Hauppauge is probably best known for its line of TV tuners that let you watch and record live television on a computer. But it looks like the company is expanding it product line in a big way.

At CeBIT Hauppauge announced several new products, including:

• A 149 Euro portable media player that can pick up live digital TV using the UK's Freeview standard
• The 199 Euro HD-PVR USB TV tuner that encodes 720p and 1080i video on the fly using the H.264 codec
• The HVR2200, a 129 Euro dual-tuner Freeview card

And today, the company has announced plans to release a set top box using the DiVX Connected software platform. There's not a lot of information about this box, but I assume it'll allow users top access web content from sites like YouTube and Google Video. Once upon a time, DiVX was showing off this set top boxes that could access the company's Stage6 video sharing service, but that site was shut down recently. You'll also probably be able to stream content over a home network from any PC in the house.