Pinnacle ShowCenter 200 : Read reviews and compare prices at Ciao.co.uk

Author's product rating:

Sound Level	Excellent
Instructions	Helpful / Easy to Follow
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	stream your computers media to your tv
Disadvantages:	quality of wi - fi, setup can be tricky

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

So like the title says, you can stream your audio, video and pictures from your computers hard drive to your tv via the showcenter 200

So maybe we should start with some specifications, features, opinions etc.

For a start lets begin with supported file types and so on, first off we have audio... the file types that are supported for audio are all the major formats like MP3, MPEG-1 layer 2 (MPA), PCM WAV and WMA. You can also stream video which also supports the majority of video formats such as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-2 VOB, MPEG-4 AVI, Xvid and WMV9, and HD video is also supported which is a nice bonus. Of course you can also stream and view your pictures (including support for HD imagery from high mega-pixel cameras etc) On the showcenter 200 and again most the image formats are supported such as JPEG, BMP, PNG and GIF.Then we have inputs, outputs and connections, which there is plenty of which are as follows:-

SCART 21-pin connector (Europe-only, also known as Peritel connector or Euroconnector) with composite, Y/C, RGB, stereo audio
Component video output (YPbPr, 3 x RCA)
Composite video output (1 x RCA)
Y/C ("S-Video") video output (1 x Hosiden)
Stereo audio outputs ("Line-Out" - 2 x RCA)
Additional stereo audio output (for separate connection to audio system - 2 x RCA)
Digital audio outputs, both optical (1 x Toslink) and electrical (S/PDIF 1 x RCA)

Then we have the other outputs and inputs which dont really relate to the above:-

Ethernet 100BASE-T (1 x RJ-45) with associated connection/data LEDs
Integrated Wi-Fi 802.11g, interface with built-in antenna
Power cable connector
IR receiver
USB Connector on front panel

As you see on the last of that list is a USB port, which allows you to connect usb storage devices such as usb pens and external hard drives etc.

Then moving on, how about lights and switchs.
well on the front as you may of guessed is a power switch, then we 3 lights, 1 green light to indicate power is on, a red light that indicates the showcenter 200 is in standby, then the orange light which indicates new media has been imported and ready to play.

Like i say about the orange light that turns on when new media is imported, you can import all your audio, video and pictures by dragging and dropping and so on, and you can also create 'watch folders' so for instance if you make the 'my music' folder a new 'watch folder' each time that a new song is added to your 'my music' folder it will be automatically updated/imported into the showcenter 200, and this is all done by a peice of software which comes on the cd-rom that is included in the box of the showcenter 200 called Pinnacle media manager.

Aside from Pinnacle media manager being on the cd-rom there is also the necessary software and drivers you need to install to successfully via the cd-rom to establish a connection between your pc and the showcenter 200 which can either be done via wifi 802.11g, which i found to be very tricky and couldnt seem to establish a connection via wifi, or when anything did happen i just lost the connection, but luckily ethernet is supported which i am currently using and there are no problems at all with connectivity or anything.

Then how about box contents, well in the box you get a wifi dongle which you connect to the back of the showcenter 200 to establish a signal for wireless connectivity, you also get a 3 metre ethernet cable (cat5e), and of course you get the other basics such as scart lead and the plug.

So how about an overall opinion, well i found this on ebay for £100 which was sold as an ex display model, and can also be found on pinnacles official website (pinnaclesys.com) for a limited cheap price of £129.99 and can also be found on non official sites such as svp.co.uk.
I thought this was the bargain of the month for me, and maybe even the bargain of the year.
I can now watch all my videos, listen to all my music and view all the pictures from my computers hard drive on my tv via just one connection which is the pc and the showcenter 200 which i have wanted to do for quite some years, so this receives a 10/10 from me.

Like i say this receives a 10/10, and its well deserved, if you want to view the audio, video and pictures thats on your computer on your tv, well theres no better way than the showcenetr 200 way!

So as we reach the end of this review i have to say this is the longest and hardest thought review i have done as far back as i can remember!
So if you liked this review then feel free to rate it or leave a comment