Pinnacle Systems announced Pinnacle ShowCenter® 250HD, a robust plug-and-play digital media adapter that enables users to link any home entertainment center with all of their networked PCs and NAS (network-attached storage) devices. ShowCenter 250HD is targeted at PC users with large digital media collections who want to enjoy this content on their home entertainment system (especially those with HDTVs).

Pinnacle ShowCenter 250HD is easy to set up, as it is compatible with UPnP (Universal Plug-and-Play) AV media server applications and can be used with Windows Vista™, Windows® XP or Mac OS systems. Equipped with built-in wired Ethernet and wireless (802.11b/g) networking, Pinnacle ShowCenter 250HD provides consumers with an easy way to enjoy streaming HD videos to their HDTV, viewing digital photos in HD resolution and listening to digital-quality music files on their home theater system.

In addition to providing high-quality video playback of the Windows Media Video 9, WMV-DRM, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVI, DivX®, and XviD files, ShowCenter supports HD playback of Windows Media Video 9, DivX HD and MPEG-4 file formats with resolutions of up to 1080i. Supported music formats range from Mp3, WMA, WMA Pro and WMA lossless to WMA-DRM and PCM WAV uncompressed.

For broad compatibility, Pinnacle ShowCenter 250HD offers a wide range of input/output options including a SCART 21-pin connector for composite, Y/C, RGB, and stereo audio; a component video output (YPrPb, 3 x RCA), a composite video output (RCA), an S-Video output (Y/C, MiniDIN), two stereo audio outputs (4 x RCA) and two S/PDIF digital audio outputs (1 x RCA coaxial, 1 x Toslink optical). Other inputs/outputs include Ethernet RJ-45 (100BASE-T) and an Integrated Wi-Fi 802.11g module with detachable antenna as well as a 100-230V power cable connector, an Infrared receiver and a USB 2.0 connector which is conveniently located on the front panel.

Pinnacle ShowCenter 250HD will be available by November with an MSRP of US$199.99. The device comes with built-in wired Ethernet and wireless networking as well as power, Ethernet and SCART cables; a remote control with batteries and a Quick Start Guide.

Press Release Source: Pinnacle.